Ullrich breaks (AX-Lightness) Saddle

[danielgillett]

Here is the news taken from www.cyclingnews.com:
"Bad luck for Ullrich

Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile)
Photo ©: Sirotti

The Clasica San Sebastian didn't go quite according to plan for Jan Ullrich (T-Mobile), who abandoned the race when his saddle broke at the top of the Jaizkibel with 35 km to go. At the time of the mishap, Ullrich was leading a small chase group behind the seven leading riders, but rolled to a halt when he noticed something was wrong. Although the Mavic neutral service car offered him a wheel, Ullrich required a new bike and had to wait four minutes for his team car to catch up. By that stage the race was over, and Ullrich climbed into the car.

"As it happened so close to the finish, there wasn't any point in picking up the chase again," said Ullrich. "Perhaps this will mean good luck next week in Athens."

Ullrich also suffered a puncture earlier in the race. His teammate Andreas Klöden abandoned with a violent headache, quite possibly as a result of the hot conditions. "

Whilst I am not 100% sure that he was using his AX-Lightness combo; It is very likely as he has been using them throughout 2004.
I am unable to find any quality pictures of him off his saddle, or of the seatpost so it is quite hard to verify that is was an AX product.
Do you think that it is likely that AX-Lightness break? Because I am considering ordering one.

[Samu Ilonen]

Anything can broke. But I ride with Ax-lightness Apollo and it seem to be very rigid. There I max.85kg label in my seat but I weight that 85kg on "light" day...I have used it only in this summer.

But for only seat, not combo, I will next time buy SLR. Lot of more comfortable and 1/4 of price. Expensive 55g....but looks very nice.

[alain]

Ullrich used indeed an AX-Lightness combo. There was an article on his 2004 TdF bike with a picture of his saddle on cyclingnews a while ago.

... And I doubt that Ullrich weights more than 85kg right now... but he sure does during winter !

[Francois_Viviers]

Unfortunate, these saddles seem to be building up a reputation. But at the moment we cannot be 100% sure it was an AX and also AX would not know the history of this saddle.

There are a lot of people handling these bikes. I for sure know that when someone looks at my bike they always pick the thing up at the saddle and stem. I hate that as these saddle are not designed for that.

[doozer]

i was looking at it during the race coverage.. Ullrich used the AX combo in the TdF cos you could clearly see that there was no seatpost clamp, just the neat join where the rails go throught he post material. He disguised it with a Selle san marco cover over the saddle.. i'm pretty sure that was what he was riding in san sebastian. but i am only going on the TV views of Ulli from eurosport

Dooz

[alain]

Here is a picture :

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2004/ ... ike/CH8864

[divve]

Is it possible for AX to adjust the saddle angle after it has been manufactured? In my experience even when changing between identical saddle models I have to set them up slightly differently due manufacturer tolerances.

[alain]

You are surely right about manufacters having margins of tolerance. Anyway, a saddle/seatpost combo such as AX-lightness is rather a worthless concept : frames have each a specific degree of seat tube, which sometimes varies between sizes of a same model. It means that AX-lightness would have to make a model of its combo custom made for a specific frame. And when your saddle has done its time, congratulations ! you have to change the whole thing. And how do you adjust your position if you can not move your saddle horizontally ?

Conclusion : an extreme product with no future in the industry, which has maybe for merit to show once again that carbon is not a sustainable material however it is used on a bike. It will brake, it is only a matter of time. And yes, I don't like carbon

[mises]

Here is a picture :

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2004/ ... ike/CH8864

The rails in the picture look like the 70kg SL version of the saddle so he could be over the limit or right on it even at this time of year.

[Smahatma]

You are surely right about manufacters having margins of tolerance. Anyway, a saddle/seatpost combo such as AX-lightness is rather a worthless concept : frames have each a specific degree of seat tube, which sometimes varies between sizes of a same model. It means that AX-lightness would have to make a model of its combo custom made for a specific frame. And when your saddle has done its time, congratulations ! you have to change the whole thing. And how do you adjust your position if you can not move your saddle horizontally ?

Conclusion : an extreme product with no future in the industry, which has maybe for merit to show once again that carbon is not a sustainable material however it is used on a bike. It will brake, it is only a matter of time. And yes, I don't like carbon

That's why you send in your current seat and post, so they duplicate the angle and set back and whatnot --- therefore it IS custom for every single person/frame. Additionally, its meant for racing --- all racing parts will wear in time and the teams factor that in when determining replacement time. Can you name any expendable parts that are used for one season? No....because they are expendable, just like this seat. I know that I would hate to ride the same replaceable parts for more than one season if I had a bigname sponsor such as they do.

Conclusion: You are flat out wrong. End of story.

[cyclemanpat]

I weigh 152 lbs and have brokme 2 AX sprint saddles. Both broke at the carbon rails!!!

[alain]

Obviously I am wrong yes. I wonder if I am "expendable" too ?



Well. I think you don't really know "the end of the story" ... but Ullrich sure knows, there, beside his bike and his broken combo waiting for its team car to come ...
Even though such parts are made for racing, it is better if they last more than a few kilometers. And you know like me that companies such as AX-Lightness makes money with people buying fancy "racing" parts but without being racers themselves. As well as people buy SUV's not because they want to race Paris Dakar, but because it is fancy, trendy and it looks good.

[C-40]

Waste of time, money and resources- Do you think LA would take chances with stuff like this? Of all the parts that one does NOT need to worry about- a simple fall to the pavement could force a rider to have to wait for the team car....... smart teams have to consider the risks- and now with nearly every team capable of making it to the minimum limit, the decision to use questionable parts is um.........questionable.

[gholl]

I have two AX saddles, one standard and one Apollo model-NOT the type shown in the Ulrich incident. I have put about 1000 miles on each with no problems-however, I no longer race, but train under all sorts of conditions-and maintain a weight below 150 lbs.
Knowing about the possibility of breakage, my mechanic was scrupulous in following the saddles' mounting instructions-especially in the positioning of the clamp on the rails, eliminating burrs, etc. What I have found is quite contraintuitive--that these saddles are the most comfortable I have owned in almost fifty years of cycling! I believe this is due to the fact the there is virtually no friction between the saddle and shorts, and, perhaps to the nature of carbon's deformability.
Having said all this, I doubt I would race with these saddles,( time-trial perhaps), because any small fall would break the saddle and immediately end the race (pro racing with its spare bikes might be an exception). What I am curious about is whether AX will stand behind its products-and with what dispatch.

[Johancoenen]

pictures
http://grahamwatson.com/gw/imagedocs.ns ... m&04sanseb

http://grahamwatson.com/gw/imagedocs.ns ... m&04sanseb


http://grahamwatson.com/gw/imagedocs.ns ... m&04sanseb