Fabric Line Race Shallow saddle review

As one of many offerings in Fabric’s extensive range, it’s statistically likely that you’ll find a Fabric seat to suit your peach. So how does the Line Race Shallow saddle fare in a stacked field of tough competition, then?

Unlike Fabric’s other saddles, the Line Race only comes in one profile, shallow, but does come in two different widths: a wider 142mm or slightly narrower 134mm.

Touted as a perch that’s designed for everyone, the saddle has a rounded rear section giving it a convex shape and a medium amount of padding.

It’s designed, Fabric claims, for riders that are in a natural riding position with bars that are going to be slightly lower than the seat’s height. The saddle’s rails are made from titanium and the hull is flexible nylon.

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This is claimed to reduce the need for lots of padding because your weight is transmitted through your hands as much as your backside.

The pressure relief channel measures 40mm wide x 215mm long, running almost the entire length of the saddle. The channel is one of the largest of the saddles we’ve recently tested and Fabric says this is specifically designed to provide comfort for longer days on the bike.

In a bid to improve comfort, Fabric has designed this saddle with a three-piece bonded cover that is claimed to be more comfortable than a traditional cover, which is normally stretched over the top of the seat’s hull and padding.

Fabric Line Race Shallow saddle performance

Out on the trail, the first thing you’ll notice is the long and deep pressure relief channel. It does a good job of removing weight from the perineum but doesn’t alleviate the issue as much as I’d have liked.

The saddle’s overall convex shape reduces the channel’s usefulness. The shape means that the highest points on the sitting surface are concentrated to each side of the channel, which form what is essentially a ridge with pressure points in the area between your sit bones.

Unfortunately, the pressure this creates does lead to numbness and discomfort on climbs and flatter sections.

The saddle’s nose width didn’t interfere with my thighs when pedalling because the nose is quite narrow, and neither do the saddle’s wings at the back. The soft and smooth cover also helps to reduce the feeling of unwanted contact with the edges.

Heading downhill, I did notice the saddle’s wings contacting the inside of my thighs a touch more than expected for a saddle of this claimed width, but this connection wasn’t especially troublesome. I didn’t feel like I was being pushed around by the saddle more than I wanted to push the bike around with it.

Generally, for riding downhill, the saddle falls into the Goldilocks width category and the nose certainly wasn’t in the way at all.