Specialized’s standard Toupe is an impressive race saddle, and for plenty of us at BikeRadar its great shape, low weight and impressive comfort make it an all-time winner. The Body Geometry design is also available in three widths (130, 143 and 155mm), with Specialized staff measuring you in store before you buy.
- Highs: Ultra-light with a classy upper
- Lows: Less comfy than the standard model
The Toupe’s shape combines a flat profile, a medium length (275mm) and a very slender nose that segues into the rear wing sections a long way back. The shape keeps friction from your legs to a minimum and is well suited to a racy and aggressive riding position.
The S-Works model gets oversized carbon rails and a carbon fibre hull upgrade. This is covered with a lightweight soft-touch micromatrix cover, the matt finish and subtle graphics adding an air of real quality. Oddly, though, unlike the Expert model, which is seamlessly bonded, this is traditionally overlapped and glued.
The padding on the S-Works is impressively low in volume but is still very well cushioned, isolating you from vibrations and bumps very well. But on long rides you can’t help but notice that the uni-directional carbon fibre hull feels significantly stiffer than the standard model’s hull.
What we love with the standard model is that even after several hours of hard riding you don’t notice the saddle at all – always a good sign. On the S-Works, however, we did. Yes, the Toupe in its S-Works guise is 74g lighter at just 151g, but it is twice the price of the Expert. If you really must have the most exclusive and lightest saddle that Specialized offers, then the S-Works Toupé is a genuinely fine piece of kit. But we’d rather save our money, live with the very small weight difference and enjoy the superb comfort offered by its more competitively priced siblings.
This article was originally published in Cycling Plus magazine, available on Apple Newsstand and Zinio.
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