Existing ‘comfort’ saddles are compromised, they lack the necessary form and function to support the human body appropriately, so movement is restricted by adding width, adding chaffing, and nerve compression. The supported area of conventional ‘comfort’ seats is little better than with a conventional sports seat.

“The design priority wasn’t for a perception of comfort – ‘softness’ – instead, to provide an absence of what causes discomfort, lower peak pressure, evenly distributed over a far larger area, and none in the pudendal, soft-zone.

The problem needed turning round, to provide maximum support, with no loss of motion. 

I contacted BBC Tomorrow’s World, who then had an open innovations programme, I was advised not to go public with a design wich, they thought, had commercial potential, until a patent was at least applied for. This I would have done differently.

Several years were spent on patents and talking to innovation investors, NESTA, about prototype market trials, this seemed a great cost for rough prototypes – just for a day’s feedback at a shiny venue – for what you may learn, from a few events.

My brother, Paul (actually a businessman), and I were obliged to form a limited company as part of NESTA negotiations.

We decided to go ahead with product development, for manufacture and open, public trials – based on a real product – and trust to real-world feedback.

This was achieved with assistance from many friends, riders and manufacturing experts, likes DuPont, and Velo, Taiwan. Due to relative cost, and location, we were recommended Protomould by Edinburgh Business Gateway, and met Bill Scott in Fife. It was clear he was perfect to work closely with, and make final tooling, for an initial production run.

This whole process took about eight years.”

During this time our homes paid for patents, and parents bravely stepped in to keep the family business indepenendant during proof-of-concept. Scary, really, but all involved were confident of the design after many, often expert, trials.

“What fed our motivation, was the contrast in experiences – and increasing evidence of damage caused by conventional nosed saddles – the feedback from early takers was quite something.

Conventional saddle design has barely changed from the very beginnings of the bicycle, the ability to support the human anatomy has become less, in real terms. I think we just changed that.” – Jonathan (Jon) Catling, designer