Vincere Ava Saddle 2013

BPeople are an Italian company based in the cycling heartland of Treviso, where you will find many of the prestigious names in cycling.

The BPeople range of saddles is comprehensive and traditionalists will love the Unica with its mix of tan leather and carbon creating a modernist saddle with real echoes of the past. In contrast the styling of the 109 saddle with it's carbon seat and rails (in matt or gloss) thoroughly embraces modernity. The Vincere Ava Saddle we have been riding sits just below the Unica and the 109 and above the rest of the range, which includes a women's saddle.

As used by Maurizio Fondriest and the ASD Fondriest Factory Team ridden in races and Gran Fondo's, the Vincere Ava Saddle comes in two version one with carbon rails and the other with Vanox, a metal that has become increasingly popular with manufactures as the cost, and availability of titanium continues to rise.

We have the carbon railed version and which we have been hammering through the murk of the UK winter on our cross bike, and thus giving the saddle a fair degree of ill-treatment!

There are more minimal saddles on the market weighing hardly anything, but the Vincere Ava Saddle seems to have married lightweight with a broad reasonably padded saddle, that offers plenty of support but still keeps the weight at just 163gms.

The extremely good build quality of the Vincere Ava Saddle says a lot about BPeople, and the amount of thought and work that has been put into creating their saddle range.

Of course saddles are a very difficult product to talk about, because what can be great for one bottom is a nightmare for another, but having said that we found the Vincere Ava Saddle to be comfortable and the saddle design took pressure off the sciatic bones and the carbon weave of both rails and frame allowed enough compliance without harming the saddle's firm perch for maximum pedalling.

The carbon rails like most other brands, are oversized so you will need to use in combination with a suitable seatpin.

After many kilometres the saddle still looks new (when washed), it offered us a firm ride but one that was still comfortable. The Vincere Ava Saddle could be a good choice for both racing and sportifs.

Available in white and black.

Website: www.bpeople.it