Who is Posedla? What is the Joyseat?
I first heard of a small Czech company producing custom 3D printed saddles from my friend Jiri Novak. “It’s really cool, you should talk to them. They come from close to my hometown.”
Ok so I went and checked the website. Around that time Specialized and Fizik released their first 3D printed saddles and the tech was interesting.
A lot of people reported being very happy with their 3D printed saddles. The price point was (and is) steep though. Around 300€ for a mass produced 3D printed saddle is not an easy investment.
Posedla are coming out on top of that, with 490€. Wow, I read further and got quite intrigued with their approach following the principle of “Mass Customization”.
A real custom 3D printed saddle
Posedla are offering a custom printed saddle by a logistically complicated and fairly long process:
First you will enter your details like body weight, height, flexibility, rider level, intent of use and more on the website.
In my case that meant 61kg, 178cm height, extremely flexible, 15-20000km a year and a saddle to be used on a gravelbike. Why Gravelbike? I thought that this would sit nicely in between road and MTB and I could switch the saddle between bikes for my races and events. Did that work as expected? I’ll elaborate later…
Then Posedla will send you the Smiling Butt Kit. A nice little marketing name for a foam box with QR registration marks on the side.
You will need to sit butt naked (pun intended) in the foam block after removing it from its box. Yes, that was a problem for some I talked to, as they deformed the box and didn’t have a clear imprint.
The fancy part is how you get your imprint to Posedla. You take pictures out of different angles of the box with your smartphone (or camera if you prefer) and upload them on the website. An algorithm will create a digital 3D model of your butt using the registration marks on the side. Smart, however i was intrigued to find out how accurate this would be considering picture quality, angles and lighting.
Time to wait for your saddle
After you hand in all the pictures and data you will need to wait a few weeks. Weeks?
Yes, after all your saddle will be handbuilt according to your sit bone width, pressure points and preferences.
Of course there are no unique carbon plates for every single saddle with tooling made just for them, according to your sitbone width and some other parameters Posedla will choose from a few sizes and start layering up the carbon for your saddle!
That carbon manufacturing part is by hand of course…
According to your butt imprint and its, well peculiarities, a 3D printer will print a TPU powder based upper for your saddle. Those are glued together and voila: You will receive your Posedla Joyseat in a fancy folding card box with a “birth certificate”.
First impressions and thoughts
When I received my saddle, obviously the excitement was quite a bit bigger than the usual “Oh, I ordered a product”.
The birth certificate gives you info on your sitbone width, pressure zones across the saddle and the different softnesses of material used across the saddle. Even some statistics on how you fare against others and how you’re classified in the Posedla Database are included.
The saddle feels light and well made.
However, compared to the mass production competitors it looks a bit bulkier and the more glossy finish doesn’t look as premium as some other models. Maybe just not as aggressive? Just trying to reproduce my first impressions here.
And shockingly my saddle felt very stiff. Not the soft touch of other 3D printed saddles I’d seen, not a lot of movement of the material where my sit bones would be located.
The Carbon rails of the saddle seem very solid and in general the saddle doesn’t have massive marks even after over a year of use. In general with Carbon rails you will have problems attaching some accessories and bikepacking bags like my beloved Ortlieb Saddle Bag QR.
A trait I was willing to take.
What did I expect from the saddle?
So obviously some of my first impressions didn’t match what I expected, also influenced by what other products I’d already seen. E.g. assuming the saddle MUST be super soft.
I was looking for the perfect saddle for bikepacking races and trips.
An end to chafing and saddle sores kind of. On a side note I wanted a lightweight and performant saddle that would help me sit very efficiently and consistently.
Maybe having a small performance boost?
And of course being a very expensive product I wanted it to be a saddle that does it all. The one that I will have the rest of my life.
Putting the Posedla Joyseat to the test
I am data driven. I don’t really like just believing in things. So I went to my bike fitting expert Sven from Bikefitting Salzburg. However I didn’t bring only the Joyseat and the gravelbike, I brought my road, gravel and mountainbike to have them fit to my body and needs and compare three different saddles with Geobimized pressure mapping.
The saddles tested were a Brooks Cambium C19 carved. The couch. You know it will never be the most efficient or lightweight saddle, but it’s a landmark in cycling and with all the flex of the upper material it has helped me to stay without problems for many years.
Second saddle tested was the Prologo NDR which came with my bikes. I like it, it’s the lightest saddle of the 3, however I used it in TCR No.9 and my butt was ok but not overly happy after 11 days of riding.
The Posedla Joyseat saddle was the new kid on the block and I could feel that Sven was curious but skeptical.
Fit wise changes to my bikes were minimal. Saddle a few mm down and forward, Stem a bit shorter or the same while the handlebars got significantly narrower and got bent in levers.
Guess what? It wasn’t the Posedla that had the least pressure on my butt measured. It was the Brooks saddle. No red or orange zones, barely even yellow. Followed by the Posedla which wasn’t far off and then the Prologo, which was still quite a good fit for me.
Obviously there are thousands of saddles on the market and those will not represent anything significant, however it gives you an impression of what’s happening:
You CAN get a very good fit with a stock saddle. If you find the saddle that was so to say made for you you will have the same or a similar result. The key here is the bikefit. A good bikefit will make all the difference and well… we knew that before. Even a Posedla Joyseat saddle will have a better performance for you if fitted by a professional bikefitter.
Why didn’t I stick with the Brooks then?
The Problem is the flex. You can’t maintain a position on the bike that is as stable and efficient. This shows through sensors measuring hip, knee and ankle angles and more.
I also can’t keep the same consistent power with the Brooks saddle.
The product that sits in between the Brooks and the Prologo is the Posedla and thus its the saddle for me. (for the moment)
That doesn’t mean the Prologo or the Brooks are bad, they performed very well for me, but according to the data the Posedla just hits the sweet spot between being light and stiff but also being comfortable, ergonomic for my butt while having no pressure spots.
I honestly can’t tell you how scientific all that data is and how a lab would define the efficiency of a rider depending on the saddle, but I definitely feel like I am always sitting in the right spot.
No looking for position after sitting down, no sliding around on the saddle. I am where I want to be with comfort and I feel efficient.
Racing two seasons of ultra races on the Joyseat
So how did it fare in races? The first race I did on the Joyseat was the inaugural Hellenic Mountainrace. And it went well, I arrived in third position on the Podium. With so much rain and cold we had my butt felt exceptionally good and the day after finishing I even went for a small ride chasing trails with friends around Nafpaktos.
The rest of the season went similarly. I got a lot of top ten finishes and some small wins at smaller events. I didn’t have severe problems with saddle sores or similar once.
However, the longer the distances and the rougher the terrain on the MTB I felt a bit more pressure on my sit bones and had problems holding the more upright position I have on the MTB.
And it’s simple. The same way as the gravel bike is not the bike that does all, (It can but it doesn’t mean it’s always the best tool for the job) your Joyseat configured for gravel and aggressive position can not do it all either.
Since then I got a second saddle from Posedla with a configuration for Mountainbikes and yes, it does feel better for long off-road races on a flat bar MTB.
Sven also told me that it’s hard with me because my body basically adapts to everything and that very easy. It takes a lot before I develop pain or even injury even if something is wrong with my fit on the bike.
To make it short: The two saddles I have are my default setup and they will not be exchanged anytime soon.
Since, I even got a third updated version of the saddle with shorter nose and updated shape. The Joyseat 2.0. I will follow up on the new saddle in a separate article as this will be a bit too much for one article.
Sustainability, Repairability and future development
So obviously if you spend that much money on a saddle you don’t want it to go into a trash bin if you have a crash or maybe even just the material failing after it’s expected lifespan.
I asked Posedla about crash replacement or similar. At the time there was nothing in place and the TPU upper could not be removed and replaced to reuse the carbon shell.
I have to say though that they reacted amazingly quick and probably a month later informed me they had changed the production method of gluing the upper to the shell so it could be replaced and they’d be implementing a crash replacement. That’s not a given in the industry!
In general talking about sustainability you will have to accept that every product produced has an impact. I feel that Posedla do put a lot of thought into being responsible towards the planet and its customers. No plastic packaging, thoughts on how to reuse the foam box with your butt imprint (e.g. hang it to a wall 🤣), growing efforts in repairability and naturally a premium product that will have a longer life expectancy than a cheap mass produced product.
They are a young and seemingly hungry company. Since I received my saddle(s) they released a new shape of saddle with the Joyseat Version 2.0. And I can assure you that Posedla are not at the end of their ongoing development. They are improving and looking to better the product constantly.
There are also prototypes for 3D printed handlebar grips etc going around. Exciting products and a fast moving team. Talking to them is fun also, you feel the passion they have for their company and a genuine drive to improve in every possible way.
It needs to be stated though that after I bought my first saddle from them I have become one of their ambassadors.
Is the Joyseat for you?
Time for a conclusion. I am very happy with my Posedla Saddle and can’t wait to see what they come up with in the future. It surely has a large impact on how I train and ride races and surely there is an impact on the sanity of my butt. I am basically never using any chamy creams or similar and feel comfortable even on VERY long rides.
Is it for you? I don’t know. It depends what you are looking for and whether you want to spend the premium price for this product.
You certainly can get very close with a stock saddle. It might take a lot of time though and after the money you spend on different saddles to test you might have spent less with a Posedla Joyseat.
And in the end it’s like with all sports and hobbies. If you want and can afford it you will buy a Ferrari because you like it and that’s cool. If it excites you and motivates you to go out and ride more often while you feel less pain, that’s an ideal outcome.