WTB Silverado v2 Saddle: Checkpoint – by Guitar Ted
NOTE: WTB sent over a Silverado titanium railed saddle 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.
Back in September I received a WTB Silverado saddle, the new version, and now I have several rides on it I want to update this review with my thoughts. The introduction can be seen 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?
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.
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.
So Far… 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.