THE SELLE REPENTE LATUS M SHOWS HOW AWESOMELY COMFORTABLE CARBON SADDLES CAN BE FOR OFF-TARMAC RIDING

Words & Images - James Raison

My winter of abusing beautiful things continues! This time with a lovely multi-purpose carbon saddle out of Italy; the Selle Repente Latus M. It’s light on the bike, easy on your backside, appropriately hard on your wallet, and certainly turned some heads when I first started using it.

Let’s jump in and talk about the horrible things I’ve been doing to a beautiful saddle.

A SUCKER FOR CARBON SADDLES

Carbon saddles have the power to be phenomenally comfortable if they fit. I know they look like a harsh plank of saddle soreness waiting to pulverise your sit bones but there’s a high upside to the material.

I’ve been a very happy owner of multiple carbon saddles over recent years. The Tune Komm Vor Plus sits proudly atop two of my road bikes because it’s comfy as heck, and tips the scales at around 80g. People are less shocked to see them nowadays because carbon saddles have normalised somewhat, but there’s still a prevailing attitude that carbon saddles are uncomfortable.

In reality carbon saddles can be superbly comfortable if they suit your body shaping. They’re no different to any other contact point in their importance of matching your physiology.

I know I prefer my comfort to be EXTREME

ABOUT THE LATUS M

There’s plenty of interest with the Selle Repente Latus M. The young Italian company (founded in 2016) is all-in for carbon saddles across road, dirt, and MTB disciplines, all of which are manufactured domestically. They use autoclave manufacturing (Autoclave Resistance Enhancement in their own vernacular) rather than the traditional process of laying carbon fibre into molds. Selle Repente claims the process gives higher quality and void-free carbon. I have no grounds to disagree from looking at the saddle. It’s immaculately made.

I questions the necessity of this design but I sure love that it exists

I’d describe the aesthetics as hilariously beautiful. It’s a gorgeous thing to look at and take in all the details. You can see the texture in the autoclaved carbon and all the shaping below a light clear-coat. There’s a graphic of someone riding a bike on the underside of the shell where it might never be seen again after unboxing. The light covering on the saddle top has, perhaps a little too much, logo and detailing on it as well.

It’s hilarious because I do horrible things to it. This thing has been coated in clay, had filthy saddle bags strapped to it, and generally done a full gross winter of gravel grinding. It’s resiliently tolerated all of the abuse.

Stats:

Price: $389
Weight: 140 g
Cover: Water-based microfiber/PU
Padding: Super lightweight EVA
Shell: UD Carbon Fiber T700 – 9x7mm
Rails: UD Carbon Fiber T700 – 9x7mm
Dimensions: 240 mm x 142 mm

I was surprised by how much usable rail there is on the Latus M. The Bontrager Aeolus had a generous 50 mm between the min/max positions but the Latus M has 90 mm. It’s a massive adjustment range and will let buyers obsessively slide forwards and back to their heart’s content.

In many ways, it’s on-trend for snub nosed saddles. The Latus M’s 142 mm width and 240 mm total length puts it right among the giants of the market: the Specialized Power Arc and Bontrager Aeolus saddle. It doesn’t have a fully cut channel but there’s a subtly lowered channel section. There’s a slight upward sweep at the rear which stops it being fully flat.

RIDE COMFORT

The killer feature of full-carbon saddles like the Latus M is having a kind of micro-suspension directly under your backside. My test rig had the Latus M atop a Syntace P6 HiFlex seatpost which worked in tandem to reduce the bumps and vibrations of riding an aluminium frame on gravel. The Grove R.A.D is a weapon of a bike, and while more comfortable than you might expect it still can leave you a little worn out from the ride. I’ve used 40mm tyres the whole time so I’m not protected from ground feedback getting sent into my body. The Latus M and Syntace post vastly improved the comfort at the rear, and reduced the back stiffness I used to get before switching.

My test period has included around 50 hours moving time and the longest individual ride had over 8 hours in the saddle. The Grove is a gravel bike, and it rarely finds itself on smooth tarmac for long, so I’ve given the Latus M every opportunity to be uncomfortable on the hours of bumpy terrain and trails. The generous, and quite flat, rear platform is nice to park your butt on and leave it there for many happy hours. I didn’t get any of the chafing or rubbing that I have occasionally experienced with other snub-nosed saddles either.

Sliding forward onto the nose is where things get less comfortable. It’s a confluence of narrow and stiff which concentrates the pressure on the contact point. I found the Bontrager Aeolus comfortable on the nose because it’s wider, channelled, and more padded which spreads the contact. My experience is the Repente Latus M then, is to keep it as a gravel/MTB saddle where you’re mostly sat back rather than a road-capable snub nose where you can slide forwards for an aggressive position. It’s spoken about by Selle Repente as an all-round-road and off-road saddle but I’d hesitate to recommend it for tarmac riding.

I had my trepidations about the Latus M, both about its physical resilience and comfort after getting hammered through long, wet, and cold gravel rides. They turned out to be unfounded. It might not give maximum positional versatility but it’s superbly comfortable where I spend basically all of my time on gravel; sat at the back. The shorter reach and more upright position of gravel bikes means I’m not instinctively trying to slide forwards anyway.

THE ECONOMICS AND MARKET POSITION

It’s common for eyebrows to raise when you start talking about a $389 saddle but it’s a market appropriate price for carbon seats. The S-Words Power Arc will set you back $390, the Bontrager Aeolus Pro is cheaper at $299, Pro Stealth Carbon is around $390, and the covered Tune Kom Vor is $369. It didn’t take much digging around for me to find many more expensive saddles. The S-Works Power with Mirror is a full $700, Selle SMP carbon pushes $1,000 just so you know how high the ceiling is.

That said, you don’t need to spend a lot to get a comfortable saddle. I’ve enjoyed plenty of cheap saddles over the years so I’m not at all here to tell you comfort is tied to price. I’m just here to assure you that a full carbon perch with a light smearing of padding and thin polyurethane coating absolutely can be comfortable for those with compatible physiology.

I have no problems with how the saddle is priced. Of course I wish everything to do with bikes was cheaper but being a pragmatic reviewer means I have to deem it reasonable.

WRAPPING UP

The Selle Repente Latus M is a beautiful thing to behold, and has all of the virtues of carbon saddles. It’s light, flexy in the way you want, and very comfortable when sat in the correct position. I’m not going to call it cheap, but it’s appropriately priced for premium carbon saddles.

There’s only a couple of drawbacks. I didn’t like the slid-forwards position because of how narrow the saddle nose is. I’d also swap it out for bikepacking. It’s generally not a good idea to have a few kilograms of saddle bag swinging around on carbon rails. I don’t get any sense of fragility from the Latus M but I wouldn’t be game to use more than a small saddle bag with tube and levers on it.

For the niche of people wanting a high performing carbon saddle for the off-road whips then it comes with a recommendation from me.