WTB Silverado Saddle [Rider Review]

Our "Rider Review" article series features the honest reviews from verified purchasers of Worldwide Cyclery. They contain the photos, thoughts, feedback & overall review you are looking for. 

WTB has been making saddles for years now and offers multiple different models for all shapes and sizes. The WTB Silverado saddle is one of our most popular and in this review, our customer Benjamin shares his thoughts on his. Read on for more!

Overview

Here's a fact: a comfortable saddle is one of the least thought about components on a bike. Almost all of my saddle thoughts in the past have been characterized by extreme agony and bouts of especially creative cursing--I've had a few bad saddles. But I've also had good saddles! And I have very little to say about them. This is as it should be, but it does make writing a review about a good saddle a difficult thing to do. How do I describe how little I thought about the WTB Silverado beyond my first ride with it? What have I been thinking about on my rides with all of this free headspace? I’d like to say I’ve been focusing on the never-ending nuances of flat corners, bike-body separation, keeping my eyes up, or dropping my heels through chunk. Yeah, that’s definitely what I’ve been thinking about.

First Impressions

The good news is, what little I do have to say about the Silverado is entirely positive: My experience with this saddle started when I hopped on a demo Ibis Ripmo V2. I was a bit skeptical at first, as I used to have a WTB Volt in the same width and, let me just say that saddle and I, we did not get along. Lots of negative thoughts about that saddle. But hey, what do you know? On the first extended climb on the Silverado, I thought to myself, “This saddle feels pretty dang firm and supportive, and my ass doesn’t really hurt at all.” Then I didn’t think about it again. Until months later when it came time to build my own Ibis Ripmo (AF.)

I had the saddle from my old bike ready to go, an SQ Lab Ergosomethingorother. It’s got a fancy shape, an elastomer that supports your natural side-to-side pedaling movement, all the latest in German ergonomic saddle technology. But I kept thinking back to the Silverado, with its supportive, flat platform and slim, out-of-the-way form factor. Out of curiosity, I checked out the specs online and I found that it was significantly lighter than the SQ Lab. I’m not one to fuss overweight, but I found myself building an alloy 29er with a coil shock and a coil fork; I had to take the weight savings where I could get them.

So next I checked WTB’s online saddle width calculator, which told me what I already knew: I needed a medium (142mm) width Silverado. Happy days.

On Trail Performance

So having ridden this saddle for a while and not having thought much about it, here's what I can say:

It’s got a nice, flat shape. It’s already survived a few crashes and is no worse for wear. It’s comfortable in a firm, sporty sort of way. It’s not super bulky, and it really stays out of the way when dropped.

It maybe isn’t the best-looking saddle, but neither was my German ergo spaceship saddle, which makes me think that there may be an inverse relationship between saddle looks and comfort; this claim requires more careful study though.

Final Thoughts

Look, this is more thinking about a saddle than anyone should really ever do. But there you go, that’s what I think of the WTB Silverado Ti. If it fits your couch bones, you should probably buy it—and then not think about it.