Short saddles have been the trendsetters for a few seasons now, with Specialized’s original Power design setting the standard closely followed by PRO and its impressive Stealth, ProLogo’s popular Dimension range and Selle Italia's short design ‘Boost’ models, to name a few.
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Fizik was for a long time considered one of the most innovative saddle brands, but its short-nose model has been a long time coming.
An all-new saddle
Luca Bertoncello, Fizik’s brand director, explains: ‘The new Argo range has been in development for a long time, it’s part of our Concepts program where experts at Fizik in design and manufacturing have collaborated with medical experts, medical academics, and bike fitting experts."
It appears that the Argo range isn’t just a shortened version of Fizik’s existing designs, but a new saddle designed from the ground up.
The idea behind a shorter saddle design is one where riders are in a more fixed position, offering better stability and better weight distribution, because you’re not moving around as much. It’s for these reasons that short saddles seem to have found favour with racers in particular.
The new Argo range comes in two flavours, the Vento and Tempo.
The Vento is designed specifically for racers and is 265mm long with widths of 140mm or 150mm. The short shape also features a distinct dropped nose and is built up with a specific low-profile foam that’s decidedly more ‘springy’ than the stuff usually found under Fizik’s covers.
The Vento has a wide pressure relief channel too to keep things comfortable when you’re riding hard.
The Vento is available in both R1 and R3 specs. The R1 gets carbon rails and a claimed weight of 179g in 140mm width and 186g in 150mm width, while the K:ium railed R3 weighs in at 213g in 140mm and 220g in 150mm.
The Tempo is aimed more at endurance riders, and has a shorter nose (it's 260mm long) with a larger, more defined pressure relief channel.
Fizik has also chosen to use its Type 2 foam on the Tempo; here it's thicker around the sit bones to aid in a more upright riding position with cushioning that’s a little softer than that used on its racing saddles.
The Tempo, like the Vento, is available in R1 and R3 specifications (so that’s carbon rails or 'K:ium' chromoly) with the R1 tipping the scales at 195g (150mm width) or 202g (160mm width) and the R3 at 229g (150mm width) or 235g (160mm width).
Fizik Argo range and pricing
- Tempo Argo R1: £180 / $215 / €189
- Tempo Argo R3: £130 / $139 / €129
- Vento Argo R1: £185 / $225 / €199
- Vento Argo R3: £135 / $149 / €139
