Thursday, October 19, 2023

WTB Siverado v2 Saddle: Review Part 2

 NOTE: WTB sent over a Silverado titanium railed saddle to Guitar Ted Productions at no charge for test and review. I was not paid, nor bribed for this review and I always strive to give my honest thoughts and views throughout. 

The new version of the WTB Silverado saddle
Back in September I received a new WTB Silverado saddle, the version 2 of this model, and since then I have been riding it off and on to get a feel for this design. You can read my initial impressions HERE

I also rode the Gravelier saddle a few times in between riding the new Silverado to see what, if any differences there are. Both saddles are of the newer 'short-nosed, wide rear' type of saddles many are gravitating toward now. 

The first saddle I rode in this vein was the Ergon saddle, the SR Allroad Comp, and I was very impressed with that saddle. So, along comes the Gravelier and it was good, but there were some things I wasn't 100% liking and it wasn't quite as nice as the Ergon saddle. A very good saddle, to be sure, but that Ergon one was the bees knees. (A brief review of that Gravelier saddle can be found HERE)

Now, this Silverado, well......I was skeptical. I mean this is something I was thinking would not be as good as the version 1 saddle, which I was really liking in the newer 143mm wide version. I was already using that saddle on my Black Mountain Cycles MCD, the bubblegum princess, and I wasn't in a hurry to replace it with some unproven "new" design. 

Add in that I thought that the Gravelier was not quite as good as the old Silverado, and well, you might see that I wasn't in the mood to be very forgiving if the new Silverado wasn't really, really good. So, was it, or was I dissatisfied?

Another view of the new Silverado.

The first few test rides weren't convincing me that I was going to get on with this saddle. But I have learned through testing parts for many years that you shouldn't make any judgement calls until after you've ridden something more than a few times and at least once for several hours. Now I have done this. 

I got a long ride in with Jason Boucher using the new Silverado.

Now that I've ridden it enough, and backed that up with another good gravel ride on my Gravelier, I can say that this new Silverado is 'very' good. It isn't a "very, very" good, but it's close. So, I will probably give this one some more time and see what I think later. 

I want to say now that it is better than a Gravelier, for my posterior, at least. I also want to say that it is as good as the old Silverado, but I cannot say - not yet anyway - that it is better than the old Silverado. And that's a big deal, because if you already own a Silverado, why bother unless this new one is better? 

My feeling is that the main customer for Silverado v2's will be customers replacing old Silverado saddles. So, my testing will see me using an old Silverado versus the new, and then we'll see what I think, anyway. You may not agree, but hey! Saddles are a very personal thing. It is okay if you don't think I get this right.

2 comments:

MG said...

It’s funny, because I took out my old Silverado, the Gravelier and the new Silverado the other night and rode them back to back. The results were enlightening. The Gravelier and old Silverado feel very similar… more similar than either saddle does to the new Silverado, which is in another league (better) for my posterior. I think it might be my new ‘favorite’ saddle for the moment, actually. Even though it’s considerably heavier than v1, it’s a considerably more comfortable saddle for me. That’s a winner.

Guitar Ted said...

@MG - Hey Brother! Thanks for that insight. Yeah, I was shocked that the V2 Silverado was heavier than the outgoing model. But I'm with you, I 'think' it is a better saddle, but I'm going to go a little longer before I'm ready to say it is so.

It is for sure AS good as the old one. I will say that straight away, and the old one was my favorite saddle for a long time.