BikeYoke Sagma Saddle

The saddle is obviously an important contact point, given how much time your butt will spend on it during any given ride. Saddle fit is an individual thing too, what with all the shapes and sizes of both peaches and their perches that exist. Now, if you know anything about BikeYoke, you’ll know that this small company is not in the game to just do what others have done before them, so it should come as no surprise that when they decided to enter the saddle game, they would do so with something a bit different if not unique. Meet the Sagma, a saddle that rides on elastomers to provide vibration damping but also to allow the saddle to follow your movements when seated – we’ve spent a good few months testing it out, and we’re here to share our findings.

BikeYoke Sagma Highlights

• Rail Suspension Design
• idbeads™ foam technology with low speed rebound properties
• PU-Skin covering
• Carbon reinforced shell
• Exchangeable shock absorber units with different hardness
• Aluminum rails 7x9mm (high-oval)
• Weight: 130mm: 225g / 142mm: 227g
• MSRP: 129.00 EUR

Initial Impressions

BikeYoke likes to have fun with packaging, their excellent dropper posts show up in a tube that looks like it might contain a fine whiskey, for example. The Sagma continues this amusing tradition, arriving in a sealed pouch that might as well be used for keeping your latest favorite hipster coffee bean blend fresh on its way to you.

With expectations ramped up by the intriguing packaging, we were happy not to come away disappointed with the actual product. The Sagma oozes quality from the first look, with high-end materials and great craftsmanship on prominent display. The overall shape is short and stubby, and the distinctly high-tech looks of the rails give the whole thing a very imposing profile – it still manages to keep the weight in line with many “regular” saddles out there however. Despite the short overall length, there is a fair amount of room to slide the saddle backwards or forwards on the rails.

The top of the saddle features a PU skin covering a layer of “idbeads” foam. This foam is said to have slow rebound characteristics and be able to conform to your body shape. The foam sits on a carbon-reinforced shell, and here is where things get really interesting. Rather than the classic rails molded into the shell, the Sagma features a pair of alloy rails that attach to a set of “shock absorbers” – essentially elastomers molded around an axle and housed in a separate little composite shell.

The shock absorbers are meant to provide vibration damping and take the sting off bigger impacts, but also to let the saddle follow the rocking motion of your hips as you pedal. To allow you to tune the response of the saddle according to your body weight and general preferences, the Sagma is delivered with three different shock absorbers – regular, soft, and hard. Two regular absorbers are installed in the saddle when it arrives, in addition you then have one soft and one hard shock absorber that can be used to replace the rear one.

On The Trail

The Sagma is firm to the touch, and we initially thought it might prove to be too firm to be comfortable. That wasn’t the case once we got it on the trail however, as within just a few minutes, we found ourselves in a comfortable position. If you are used to riding really big and soft saddles, the Sagma will seem a bit austere at first, but it’s actually very comfortable and has kept us feeling good even on longer rides. But what about those shock absorbers then? Playing around with the different ones provided in the box (pouch), there is a huge difference between the softest and the hardest one. With the softest one installed, it is very easy to rock the saddle side-to-side with just your hands, while the hardest one leaves it much stiffer. For reference, the hardest one still provides more side-to-side flex than a standard saddle would, but as stated it is much stiffer than the softest one. The video below shows the saddle in action as well as the (simple) process to swap out the shock absorbers.

So how does it feel? Well, it’s funny, because even with the softest shock absorbers installed, it’s very hard to actually feel the rocking when pedaling with your seat up. As the above footage shows, the movement is there, but you can’t really feel it. When switching to the hardest shock absorber, the saddle feels much stiffer overall, but you can’t really feel it rocking less. If you sit and pedal for a bit with your saddle all the way down, you can start to feel the saddle squirm around under you with the softer shock absorbers installed, but with the saddle up, the effect is much more subtle. It does however definitely translate to more comfort over longer rides though, so we’d encourage Sagma owners to play with the different options to find the softest one that suits them. Does it ever feel wobbly? It does not.

As mentioned in the intro, the overall shape of the Sagma is short. BikeYoke wanted a saddle that would work well for all kinds of riding, including downhill and freeride applications, and we can confirm that the shorter overall length feels nice and compact in action. We worried that there would not be enough room left to find a comfortable spot to sit, but that is absolutely not the case. Maybe if you are used to sliding way up on the nose of the saddle for climbing, you might feel like something is missing there, but for the majority of riders and types of riding the Sagma will work just fine.

Things That Could Be Improved

The only thing we are going to mention in this section is price. 130 EUR is pretty steep, there are a lot of good saddles out there that cost less than 100 EUR, but we also feel like the Sagma brings something unique to the table that makes it worth the premium.

Long Term Durability

We have had very good previous experiences with BikeYoke products, and we have no reason to think that the Sagma would be any different. We’ve run two test samples on multiple bikes for more than six months now, with very little wear and tear to show for it. The PU skin still looks and feel fresh, and apart from a small scuff sustained in a crash, there are no signs of premature demise here. The shock absorbers are still smooth and silent in action, and they feel about the same level of stiffness as when they were new (not exactly a scientific measurement, but BikeYoke say they “have yet to wear one out”…).

What’s The Bottom Line?

They say a good product goes about its business without you noticing it. That about sums up our experience with the Sagma, as the innovative shock absorbers don’t make themselves known in an obvious way, yet they undoubtedly contribute to the high overall comfort level delivered on the trail. Other unique aspects of this thoughtfully designed piece of equipment are the short overall shape and the “idbeads” memory foam used for cushioning. Whilst the saddle appears quite firm at first touch, we’ve found it very comfortable on longer rides, and the compact form factor lends itself well to all your extra-curricular shenanigans as well. It’s definitely not cheap, but it delivers the functionality and the value to match the price tag.

More information at: www.bikeyoke.de.

About The Reviewer

Johan Hjord - Age: 48 // Years Riding MTB: 16 // Weight: 190-pounds (87-kg) // Height: 6'0" (1.84m)

Johan loves bikes, which strangely doesn’t make him any better at riding them. After many years spent practicing falling off cliffs with his snowboard, he took up mountain biking in 2005. Ever since, he’s mostly been riding bikes with too much suspension travel to cover up his many flaws as a rider. His 200-pound body weight coupled with unique skill for poor line choice and clumsy landings make him an expert on durability - if parts survive Johan, they’re pretty much okay for anybody. Johan rides flat pedals with a riding style that he describes as "none" (when in actuality he rips!). Having found most trail features to be not to his liking, Johan uses much of his spare time building his own. Johan’s other accomplishments include surviving this far and helping keep the Vital Media Machine’s stoke dial firmly on 11.

Photos and video by Johan Hjord