The excitement of learning to ride a bicycle came with the realization that the more time you rode the more pain was inflicted on the butts. Yes, those days of early riding were all about non-stop riding the bike as speeds increased with every confidence boost, and the consequent sore rear by the end of the day.
To keep any bicycle true to the basics and long-lasting, the saddle has to be firm and contoured for maximum comfort. That however is counterintuitive as the seat can be uncomfortable during long rides. The solution is to prevent the body part from being pushed against a stationary support surface. How do you do that? With a movable saddle mechanism that doesn’t strain your butts. Thank god!
Designer: ataraxyBSC
The story of this unique bike saddle’s development started with the idea of a compliant bicycle seat in 2016 by Australian engineer Robin Macan. Sometime after that, he met with industrial designer Philippe Guichard to take things further and create a two-part bicycle saddle that makes it ultra-comfortable for riders no matter the length of time they paddle. This ultimately led to the partnership with Melbourne-based Whistle Design Group to take the vision further and develop an actual product.
Macan finally created his startup ataraxyBSC to solve the problem of a pain-inducing bicycle saddle that’s been left in the shadow for decades. The solution is the vabsRider bicycle saddle with a split seat design. This simple yet clever saddle moves with the movement of legs, rotating around the hip joints to eliminate any pressure-inducing surface contact. Both the sides move independently with the leg movement, transferring pressure from the sit bones to the femurs, This creates a balanced load distribution, and gone are the sore muscles when bicycling for long hours at a stretch.
The user can further adjust the fore/aft and height, or toggle the angle or width of the saddle. The latter I’ve always wondered why no one thought about before. There’s no word about the pricing or availability of the vabsRider bicycle saddle, but you can express your willingness as an early adopter by emailing ataraxyBSC.
