“Existing comfort saddles are compromised, they lack the necessary form and function, movement is restricted by width, adding chaffing, the supported area is really little better than with conventional sports seats.

The priority wasn’t the ‘perception of comfort’, instead the absence of what creates discomfort. The problem needed turning round, to provide maximum support, with no loss of performance. 

I contacted BBC Tomorrows World, who had an open innovations programme, but was advised not to go public with a design with commercial potential until a patent was applied for.

Several years were spent on patents and talking to innovations investors, NESTA, about prototype market trials, this seemed a great cost, for what you learned from a few events. We decided to head into product development, for manufacture open, public trials – trust to real-world feedback. This was achieved with much assistance from friends, riders and the likes of DuPont, Velo, in Taiwan, and back to Protomould, in Fife to make the final tooling for the initial production run. This took 8 years.

What fed the motivation was the contrast – from increasing evidence of damage caused by conventional nosed saddles – and the feedback from early takers.

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, the designer