Hi, my name is Mike Keller and I've been a professional bike fitter for 14 years.

I've done over 2,000 bike fits in that time. Road, gravel, commuter, e-bike, the lot.

And about a year ago, I stopped recommending saddles.

I'll tell you why in a minute.

First, you should know the kind of rider who usually ends up in my shop. He's 58. He's 62. He's 68. He's been riding most of his adult life. He didn't come in here for a paint job. He came in because something on the bike isn't comfortable anymore and he's run out of ideas.

Over the years, I've sat across from thousands of men who came in with the same short list of complaints:

• Numbness that doesn't fade after the ride
• Sit-bone bruising deep enough to keep them off the bike for three days
• A century they couldn't finish last summer
• A tailbone that aches for hours after a long descent
• Lower back pain they now blame on the saddle

You name it. I've seen it.

And almost every one of them walked in carrying the same thing.

Part OneThe Saddle Graveyard

Every man who sits in my fit chair has what I call a saddle graveyard in his garage.

A drawer. A shelf. A box on top of the workbench.

Three, four, sometimes eight saddles. A leather classic he waited a year to break in. A cutout saddle from a major brand. A racing perch. A noseless one. Two gel covers. A set of padded bibs that cost $280. Two bike fits at $200 each.

Some of these men have $800 in saddles they no longer ride. The worst I've seen was $1,100.

And they all said the same thing when they sat down in my chair:

"Mike, I've tried everything. Nothing works. At this point, I think it's me."

For 14 years, I nodded along. I ran the fit. I adjusted the tilt and the setback. I'd recommend something new — usually whatever the shop had on the wall. A little wider. A little more padding. A better cutout.

And he'd come back six months later with a new saddle in his drawer and the same discomfort in his body.

It wasn't until last year that I finally figured out why.

Part TwoThe Real Reason Most Saddles Disappoint

What if I told you that every saddle in that drawer disappointed for the same reason?

Not because of your anatomy. Not because of your weight. Not because you're 62 instead of 32.

Every saddle in his garage came up short because of something I started calling the One-Fix Trap.

Here's what it means.

A saddle has to do four jobs. Not one. Not two. Four. And they all have to work at the same time.

Every saddle on the market addresses one of these. Maybe two. And in addressing it, it works against the other two.

That's the One-Fix Trap.

Part ThreeWhy Every Saddle In His Drawer Came Up Short

Let me walk you through the graveyard I see on my bench every week.

Every one of these is the same trap. One fix. Two new problems. He pays $200. Six months later, he's back in my chair.

Part FourThis Isn't About Your Body. It's About The Industry.

Here's the part most riders never hear.

The cycling industry designs saddles for 25-year-old racers, not for the 58-to-70-year-old riders who make up the bulk of the recreational miles in this country. The UCI — the governing body for pro cycling — sets the rules on what shape a saddle can be in sanctioned races, and that shape was settled on decades ago for aerodynamics, not comfort.

So every shop in America stocks the shape the racing world accepts, not the shape an older recreational rider actually fits on. The wall of the bike shop is built around a body that isn't yours.

That's why the kid at the bike shop keeps recommending the same narrow racing perch with a small cutout — it's what he was trained on, it's what the wall is full of, and nobody in the chain has reason to question it.

It's not a conspiracy. It's a category that was built for someone else, and no one inside the industry got trained to look outside it.

You haven't been failing to adapt to these saddles. The saddles were never designed around the four jobs in the first place.

Part FiveSo What Should You Actually Do?

Two things have to happen, and they have to happen at the same time.

One: you need a saddle designed around all four jobs. Sit bones supported on bone. Pressure distributed away from soft tissue for the full length of the perineal corridor — not a two-inch cutout. Tailbone stable. Shock absorbed at the contact point before it reaches your spine.

Two: stop spending $200 every six months on a saddle that addresses one of those and ignores the other three.

That sounds simple. It isn't. For 14 years I couldn't find a single saddle designed around all four.

Until a sports medicine doctor in California sent me one last spring.

The SaddleIntroducing The Ascent

Four pressure points. One design.

That's the first saddle I've tested that addresses all four at the same time. I started recommending it to my clients a year ago. It's the one I now recommend first.

Part SixWhat My Clients Have Said

Over 100,000 riders have switched to the Ascent since the company launched. I only know about a few dozen of them personally. Here are three.

See the word that shows up in all three?

Again. Back to. First time in years.

That's what he's actually buying.

Part SevenThis Isn't About A Saddle. It's About Five More Years On The Bike.

If you've read this far, you're probably the rider I see in my chair every week.

You rode happily for thirty years. Somewhere around 55, the ride started to bother you. Your GP waved you off with "part of aging." Your bike shop sold you a narrow racing perch. Your fitter told you to ride through it. Your wife asked you, quietly, if you still wanted to do the 40-mile loop.

You've paid $800, maybe $1,100 to keep doing the thing you love. Every saddle in that drawer is a receipt for one more attempt that didn't take.

Here's what I'd tell you after 14 years and 2,000 fits:

You haven't failed. The category has been pointing you at the wrong tool.

You don't need another $400 saddle you'll regret in six months. You need one saddle designed around all four jobs at once.

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How To Get The Ascent

The Ascent Saddle is not sold at bike shops. It's not on Amazon. If you see it on Amazon, it's a knockoff. The only place to get the real one is the official site.

For comparison: $69.99 is a third of what most clients paid for their last cutout saddle. A quarter of what they paid for the heritage leather one. Less than a single pro bike fit.

30-Day Risk-Free Trial

You get 30 days to ride the Ascent and decide.

If it isn't more comfortable than what you're riding now — if the sit-bone bruising isn't better, if you don't finish the 50-miler you've been putting off — send it back. Prepaid return label. No restocking fee. No questions.

You'll get your money back within 48 hours.

The reason Ascent can offer that: their return rate is under 3%. Most of those returns are wrong-address deliveries or gift purchases. The "didn't work for me" rate is under 1%.

Two Paths

I've sat across from thousands of riders trying to decide what to do about the discomfort.

There are really only two paths.

Path one: Keep the saddle graveyard going. Buy another cutout next spring. Get another bike fit this fall. Stand up every ten minutes. Shorten the Saturday loop to 25 miles. Spend another $200 to $400 this year on something that won't last, and another $200 to $400 the year after.

Path two: Spend $69.99. Try the saddle designed around all four jobs. Ride for 30 days. Decide.

Still riding at 62. Still out there at 68. Still going into the 70s. That's what's actually on the table.

— Mike Keller
Bike Fitter, Boulder, CO · 14 years, 2,000+ fits