The Luce is a great saddle for long days out – well worth a look if you’re in the market and getting aggressively in the hoods isn’t your thing.
Pros
- Design
- Comfort
Cons
- Price
About the Manufacturer
Fi’zi:k (we’ll be using Fizik from now on thanks) is an Italian saddle manufacturer created out of the Selle Royal family in 1997. The brand was launched as a high end marque focusing on delivering the right ergonomics for different riding styles – Fi’zi:k is the phonetic spelling of physique of course.
Initially launching with the “Spine Concept” their approach to saddle design has changed over the years as has their product range expanding into all cycle touchpoints including handlebars, stems, seatposts and bar tape. What hasn’t changed is the brand’s focus on quality – Fizik saddles are still some of the most highly regarded out there and have adorned the bikes of many of cycling’s greats including Froome himself.
Review
While it’s not the first women’s saddle they’ve made, the Luce is the first women’s specific that Fizik made, designed for the needs of beginners and amateurs rather than women at the pro level – who Fizik believe were mainly using men’s saddles. The design of the Luce introduced a narrower nose as well as a wider more flexible rear understanding that women have different flexibility and major differences in their hip bones. There’s a great in depth from Total Women’s Cycling around bring the Luce to market here that’s worth a read.
Fizik make the Luce in two versions which are only different in their choice of rail material – carbon and the “S-Alloy” which we have on test. We have the regular size which is 145mm wide and 281mm long which is pretty lengthy and nearly the length of the well known Arione. The saddle features a carbon injected shell with a cutout and the finishing even at this cheaper end of the range is of the high standard that you would expect of Fizik with a great looking two tone synthetic cover. The nose is noticeably long and thin compare to my usual Specialized Power with the flex in the wings noticeable also. Wing flex is a common feature of most Fizik saddles, but apparently extra design work was done for the Luce to account for women’s anatomy.
Confusingly the Luce doesn’t fall into Fizik’s normal R naming system, but you might see the saddle called both Luce S Alloy and Luce R5 if you’re shopping around.
We haven’t tested many lady saddles at Crank Boutique, and that’s really because us females on the team have never had an issue with what we ride and we’ve been buying variations on those saddles for a fair time – Specialized Powers and Bontrager Montoses to be precise. That may well be because we’re all slightly built so we were curious about how we would go with a specifically designed saddle.
Overall we think it’s a very good saddle – there’s enough flex in the shell to keep the saddle comfortable on long days out or on rougher surfaces and while we didn’t expect to notice it, the slender shape of the nose certainly aided comfort – especially compared to the stubby Power. While we found the Luce great in most positions, Fizik didn’t set out to make a racing saddle and it’s adequate rather than good in aggressive positions and really under the hammer.
From a fit and finish perspective it’s certainly of a high quality although if we’re really going to nitpick, we wouldn’t mind if the wings came in just black rather than baby blue.
The Luce is a great saddle for long days out – well worth a look if you’re in the market and getting aggressively in the hoods isn’t your thing.
Key Specifications
- Width: 144mm
- Weight: 260g
- Material: 144mm