One of the most common complaints I hear from new riders is how much their butt hurts after a long ride. Even a great chamois won’t be enough support after hours in an uncomfortable saddle.
While body position and bike set-up have a lot to do with comfort, having the wrong bike seat is a key cause of chafing, saddle sores, and back pain.
Having the right seat can make the difference between loving the sport, or walking away completely.
Fizik’s Luna women-specific bike saddle goes a long way towards the fit and support mountain bikers need.
This mountain bike saddle is worth a serious look when it comes to choosing a bike seat that meets your riding needs. Read on to find out why.
Review in a Nutshell
Pros
- Designed specifically for the female body
- Consistent support across the surface of the seat
- Sleek appearance
- Firm yet comfortable seat
- Made with carbon materials for light weight and strength
- Clear measurement indicators on rails
- Company provides easy-to-follow return policy
- Website includes detailed survey to find best saddle to fit rider needs
- No-waste packaging on delivery
- Under-saddle clip system to attach pouch, or other Fizik products
Cons
- Difficult to keep clean due to mesh material on sides of seat
- Manufactured outside North America
Price and Where to Buy:
- $99.99 List
- Buy at Fizik.com
- Buy at Amazon.com*
A Saddle Made for Women
In a sport dominated by men, it can be hard to find bike components designed specifically with women in mind. Sure, we can find women’s cycling wear and gear with a splash of pink. It’s more difficult, however, to find bike components and parts that are proportional to the uniqueness of the female body.
Fortunately, there’s a bike saddle designed specifically for women. Fizik’s Luna Mountain Bike Saddle gives women the design our bodies need for optimum support and longer rides.
Two significant features of the Luna help meet the unique needs of women riders.
Centre Cut-Out
Even when wearing a chamois, our sensitive areas can be squished and feel uncomfortable pressure. To address this, Fizik (pronounced “Physique”) designed the Luna with a cut-out centre. This allows relief for our soft-tissue parts when we’re riding.
With room created by the centre cut-out design, the rider will feel less uncomfortable pressure and have less chafing on long rides.
Designed for Sit-Bone Distance
Women have wider sit-bones than men. While there are exceptions to every rule, men usually range from 100mm- 140mm while women are usually between 110mm-150mm.
Those of us with wider sit-bones often need a wider saddle when we ride. When choosing a size for your saddle, add 20mm to your sit-bone distance.
The Fizik Luna comes in two sizes, Regular (145mm) and Large (155mm). This is greatly appreciated because many women will feel a huge difference just by getting the correct width sadle.
To make sure I picked the right saddle size for me, I followed the steps in How to Measure Sit-Bone Width for Bike Saddle At Home.
Here are the steps I followed:
Materials: hard flat sitting surface, paper towel, spray bottle filled with water, one piece of plane letter-sized paper, measuring tape or ruler with millimetre markings
- Wear only underwear or leggings. Baggy pants will make it difficult to see the sit-bone spots. Don’t wear your chamois. It’s too thick.
- Find a hard, flat bench that you can sit on. I used a piece of smooth wood on top of a stool.
- Spray the paper towel lightly with water – don’t soak it or over spray. This took me a few attempts to get it right.
- Once the paper towel is wet, place it on the bench.
- Place the plain paper on top of the paper towel and sit on the paper, raising your knees up so that you are putting weight on your sit-bones. Sit for about 5 seconds.
- Stand up and look at the paper. You should see two wet spots where your sit-bones were putting the most pressure.
- Measure, in millimetres, from the centre of one wet spot to the centre of the other. This is your sit-bone distance. I did several attempts to make sure I had a consistent result.
- To choose your saddle size, add 20 mm to your sit-bone distance. This will give you the ideal saddle size for your body.
We all know that women and men are built differently. It makes sense that we have bikes that are built differently too. The Fizik Luna Saddle is designed to meet the specific needs of the female body.
Elegant Style
Let’s go back to first impressions. When I opened the box I was immediately impressed with the sleek, high-tech look of the saddle. I know looks aren’t everything, and very often irrelevant to performance, but a couple features immediately caught my eye.
Compared to my current saddle, the Italian-made Luna has a noticeably wider seat width for my bum to rest. I was excited about that! Coupled with the sleek finish, and long nose, this bike saddle has an impressive appearance.
I don’t often pay attention to the way bike saddles look, but this one struck me as a beautiful looking saddle.
Pretty But Difficult to Clean
The sides of the saddle are made of mesh. While the mesh gives a nice two-toned appearance, the saddle was difficult to keep clean. After a few rides on singletrack, the saddle was no longer so nice looking.
Mud and dirt got under the mesh and did not easily wipe off. I’d probably need to let the mud dry completely and vacuum out the dirt pieces each time if I wanted to maintain the seat’s appearance.
The underside, not that anyone sees that part of the seat, is a vibrant turquoise blue. The seat itself is black and will compliment the most colourful of bikes on any trail.
Fizik prides itself on creating beautiful, elegant looking bike gear. With the Luna Bike Saddle, this is true at the start. Unfortunately, the difficulty removing the mud may be a deterrent for some riders.
Light-Weight Materials – Technology that you won’t notice
The last thing I need on my mountain bike is more weight. Thankfully, the Fizik Luna is very light weight, yet made of strong carbon and alloy materials for performance.
The rails of the saddle are made of S-alloy which is lightweight and corrosion-resistant. This is perfect for the underside of a seat that is sure to receive its share of mud, water and dirt.
The inner core of the saddle is made of carbon-reinforced nylon, which is surrounded by thermoplastic elastomer side panels. What does all this mean?
Simply put, the saddle is light-weight yet strong at the centre. The surrounding material is firm like plastic, but flexible like rubber. The result is a saddle that allows flexibility as the rider moves. In theory, as the rider pedals, the Luna forms to the rider’s body for longer comfort and support.
How does all this technology impact my ride?
I didn’t feel any movement or “give” as I rode. In fact, I didn’t notice the bike saddle at all.
And that’s the point. We’re not supposed to notice the saddle. When a saddle is comfortable and supportive, we shouldn’t feel it. Let it do its job unnoticed.
In a bike saddle, mountain bikers don’t want rigidity and we don’t need soft, squishy cushioning. We need support and stability. The Fizik Luna Saddle provides both.
Comfort
Now that all the technical jargon is done, let’s get real. The question we’re all asking is: Is this saddle comfortable or not?
The answer? A resounding yes!
Long, seated rides
I first tested the saddle on my Trek hardtail, which I often use for gravel and less technical terrain. While rail-trail riding is not my favourite activity, sometimes it’s necessary when the singletrack is drying out. I do it, but am always happy when it’s over.
Having a saddle which can provide comfort during periods of extended sitting and pedalling action is important for long, flat rides.
I rode between 15 and 20 km on a couple of flat, gravel rides which did not allow for much out-of-seat coasting. The change of saddle definitely made a difference.
Not only was I not experiencing any soreness or sit-bone pain during or after the ride, I wasn’t begging for the ride to be over, like I usually am. I could have easily ridden another 5-10 km, which, for me, is never the case.
Another difference I noted was that the usual back-pain I have after a ride with a lot of sitting was not there the next day. I can’t specifically link this to the saddle change, but I was happy with the coincidence anyway.
Time for the Singletrack Test
Next up, was a ride on my full suspension bike – a bike I ride for most of the mountain bike season. On these rides I’m not sitting in the saddle for long periods of time, but moving between standing and sitting frequently throughout. For this reason I need a firm but comfortable saddle when I come back down to the seat each time.
Luna delivered. I felt comfortable and secure from the first ride. The seat was firm enough to provide a safe landing space for my bum, yet not too wide to be a hindrance.
I had no idea how uncomfortable my bike saddle was until I switched it out for the Fizik Luna. It really did make a difference for me on both my bikes.
For both technical singletrack and shorter gravel rides, the Fizik Luna provided the support I was missing from my previous bike saddle. It’s definitely worth a consideration if you’re finding your current seat leaving you with sit-bone discomfort, saddle sores or back pain post ride.
Easy to Install
I’m still growing my bike-mechanic knowledge when it comes to looking after my bike. I’m at the point where I still prefer a shop mechanic to take care of the important stuff.
When the Luna Saddle arrived at my home; however, I couldn’t wait to get it on my bike and try it out. The only way I could do that was if I installed it myself. So I did!
It was easily compatible with the mechanics of my current seat, so I knew there were only two screws to loosen the clip and replace the seat.
Switching the seat from one bike to the next was easy as well. Because Luna has clear measurement markings on the underside rails, I could easily note the seat position relative to the post.
With this small but beneficial detail I knew I’d be able to set the saddle in the exact position needed for my body when I moved it from my hardtail bike to my dual suspension.
Company & Website
Fizik is an Italian company which boasts their production of beautifully made, high performance bike components. They manufacture bike saddles, bar tape, shoes, apparel and other accessories for all types of cycling from Enduro to gravel to triathlon and everything in between.
Community Support
While there was limited evidence of community out-reach described on their website, I did find a partnership with a mental health initiative for the month of May. The One-Hour-A-Day Challenge encourages riders to be proactive in their own mental health by getting outside for physical activity.
Environmental Awareness
The packaging of the shipment was definitely environmentally-conscious. The saddle arrived in a simple, fully-recyclable cardboard box. No plastic or unnecessary layering found in many door-to-door deliveries.
Detailed Survey for Product Selection
Choosing the right bike saddle is important for your comfort and for performance. The Fizik website provides an extensive and detailed survey for potential customers to complete. In this way they are helping to ensure you find the right product that meets your unique needs. With distribution of products world-wide, Fizik tries to gather as much information as possible before you spend your money.
Support for Riders
For amateur riders who love growing their awareness of how the bike-body connection increases riding efficiency, it’s worth checking out the How-To page of the Fizik website. There you can find videos and tips for installing the saddle in the right position for your body. Fizik provides detailed analysis of saddle height, straightness, tilt and setback. All helpful information for the do-it-yourself mountain biker.
Bottom-Line
Without hesitation, the Fizik Luna is a comfortable saddle option for the variety of terrain that mountain biking offers.
But I’ll qualify that by adding, it’s comfortable for me. Bike saddles are very rider-specific.
We all have different bodies, different riding positions and riding goals. This means that what works for one rider, may be a disaster for another.
For me, the Fizik Luna checked a lot of the boxes off my wish list. It was comfortable and firm and had the width I was craving for security and support.
The cut-out centre provided relief for my soft tissue parts and the saddle itself was easy to install. When changing out the saddle from one bike to the next, I was easily able to maintain the set-up I needed for my body position because of the measurement markings on the rails.
The only concern I had was the difficulty keeping the saddle clean.
If riding with a firm seat is important for you, then the Fizik Luna Bike Saddle is definitely worth a look. It’s a no-risk purchase because of Fizik’s friendly return policy.
Change can feel risky, but the added effort can make all the difference in your ride and be totally worth it in the end. Your butt will thank you!
More Stuff You Might Like
- 9 Best Women’s Bike Saddles & How To Choose!
- How to Heal (and Prevent) Cycling Saddle Sores
- 10 Best Women’s Padded Bike Shorts (Cycling Shorts)
About The Reviewer
Jane Gerritsen bought her first mountain bike at age 52 as “retirement prep” and since that time, the mountain bike community has opened up her world to new goals, new adventures and best of all, new friends. She is most grateful for her time at home, where she is learning to renovate her garage, try new recipes, write, and of course, plan her next mountain bike adventure.