Selle San Marco GND Gel Racing saddle review

Selle San Marco's GND Gel Racing saddle was launched in 2018 and was a relatively new design for the mountain bike lineup.

Offered in two widths – 135mm and 145mm – it features Xsilite rails that are a composite of titanium, carbon and silicone, and features a carbon fibre reinforced hull.

The 145mm width saddle weighs 218g, making it a lightweight MTB-specific saddle when compared to its competitors.

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Its overall shape is slightly concave, which should help to improve comfort considerably. A pressure relief channel is present, but it isn’t especially long or wide at 35mm x 170mm, and the saddle’s overall length is 264mm.

The padding is constructed with Biofoam, which Selle San Marco claims follows the movements of the pelvis during pedalling to guarantee comfort. Its wings are reinforced with an abrasion-resistant hard-wearing material and the rest of the saddle’s cover is made from Selle San Marco’s Microfeel material.

Selle San Marco GND Gel Racing saddle performance

Climbing is exceptionally comfortable thanks to a large rear section that has a minor concave shape. This helps to concentrate your seated weight onto your sit bones and gives you the option to sit further forwards than you would on a narrower saddle.

Being able to shift your weight forwards while remaining in comfort on the saddle should help you to control the bike better on climbs and ride for longer.

The back of the saddle has a lipped rear edge that helps you to maintain position on much steeper climbs without feeling like you’re going to slip rewards. This is a great feature for steeper climbs and conserves energy that would normally be spent preserving body position on the seat.

With a fairly wide overall design, I thought it would interfere with the inside of my thighs while pedalling. However, because the saddle is fairly short this didn’t prove to be an issue and there were no instances of discomfort.

There was still a small amount of pressure on the perineum when seated but it wasn’t severe enough to cause any numbness in the genitalia, even after prolonged periods.

When descending the rear’s width did cause it to come into contact with my legs a little more than I would normally like. This was especially pronounced when I was cornering or the bike was getting kicked up on rougher sections of track.

That said, the saddle's width did mean that it was easy to use it to manouvre the bike around without issue, but its wings were quite rough and led to a small level of discomfort on the inside of my thighs.

The nose is short enough to not get in the way at all when descending, but it would be fair to say that the saddle’s reduced downhill performance is overshadowed by how comfortable it is on the climbs.