About the Manufacturer
There’s not many names bigger in the cycling world than Ritchey. The child of renowned road and mountain cyclist Tom Ritchey (who still owns and runs the company), the company started in 1974 to challenge some of the bigger players in the market and the conventional thinking in cycling at the time. While Ritchey was already by this point a well regarded frame-builder, his new company and their Fit Logic philosophy started to introduce some big innovations into the road and mountain biking worlds, including innovations in tube design and welding and new thinking around cartridge sealing and the bottom bracket.
Today, Ritchey continues to manufacture road, mountain and gravel frames with a huge range of aftermarket parts and accessories made to the founder’s exacting specifications.
About the Saddle
The Ritchey WCS Streem TT is, apart from being a mouthful, an off shoot of the company’s popular Streem saddle designed exclusively with Triathletes and Time Trialists in mind. The man himself worked with the then United Healthcare Cycling team to develop the Streem up as a dedicated TT saddle adding additional support and padding in the nose to increase comfort in the low down tri position and reducing the overall length. The result is a comfortable saddle for high performing athletes with a very unique aesthetic. As this is the WCS version the model also comes with Ti Alloy rails and a carbon fibre and nylon shell.
Positives and Negatives
At Crankboutique, we’ll be the first to admit that we’re not dyed in the wool time trialists or triathletes, although given the option we’d much rather do the former – who actually enjoys running? That being said when we received our test model we borrowed a friends Canyon SpeedMax to dutifully log some long sessions around Centennial Park and Tempe in Sydney. We expected the Streem to be rather unforgiving and we very much expected to feel that pronounced shape on the nose – neither which we experienced over the couple of hundred kms we put into the test bike over a week. The Streem is certainly firm, but we found the shape plenty comfortable and got off after extended periods with our backsides in good shape.
Despite the Streem being an older model, if you’re in the market for a TT/Tri saddle – this could be the one for you. The shape is a bit old school compared to the snub noses of modern saddles, but its very comfortable over the long distance with the shape providing plenty of support.
With that in mind, we just can’t love it – the Streem TT has a very unique look that looks out of place even on the utilitarian lines of a TT machine.
Key Specifications
- Rails: CrN/Ti
- Shell: Nylon + Carbon
- Cover: Microfiber
- Dimensions: 272 x 132mm,
- Rail Dimensions: 7x7mm
- Weight: 243g
Pros
- Comfortable for extended rides and training
- Plenty of support
Cons
- Those looks will split opinion