From personal experience, bike manufacturers rarely sell bikes with great saddles, instead choosing own brand or cheaper OEM solutions to ship with their bikes. Both my Norco and my Canyon came with less than adequate offerings with the Canyon’s low end Fizik being so uncomfortable I needed to rush out and buy a new one after the first ride.

After deciding to ditch the own brand saddle on my Norco, I started searching online, on user forums mainly, for some recommendations and read more and more good things about the Fabric Scoop. With a price tag that seemed very reasonable to me and a great range of styles and colours, I opted for the Sport Radius model.

The Radius model is sold for all day comfort, and while my Norco Sight is used less and less as an all day bike, comfort is at the top of my list when choosing a saddle. The additional weight is so minimal it was of no concern; to be honest, I would still have chosen comfort even if it was twice the weight of the Shallow model. An Elite model with hollow cro-mo rails, rather than the steel of the Sport model, is also available if weight is a real concern for you.

The Fabric Scoop is certainly comfortable, in fact, the most comfortable saddle I have ever sat on. It’s soft, without being spongy, takes the worst out of the “trail buzz” and looks great. Riding all day left me without the numbness in the crown jewels I have become used to. While I haven’t ridden on a vast array of different saddles, the Scoop is without doubt a very comfortable saddle, and is my choice for my new bike early in the new year.

So, only four stars? Why not give it five if I think it’s so great? I had a low speed crash at Wind Hill Bike Park a couple of weeks ago which resulted in the plastic underside cracking. While I don’t expect to crash without inflicting damage somewhere, sliding on leaves and losing the bike beneath me was the lamest of crashes and the impact was low. A bit more durability wouldn’t go amiss!

The bottom line is  will be buying another Fabric Scoop for my new bike later this year.