Stuff Reviewed: San Marco Magma Titanox 245

Beautiful seat, probably not for clydesdales
By Nigel Dalton


Most people seem to find a seat that fits their bum and stick with it for life. If there were seat tribes, I am a Selle Italia Flite Titanium tribal elder, having had one of the very first of these aerospace looking devices in New Zealand in the 1990s. So it was with trepidation that I mounted the San Marco Magma to my Cannondale. This could mean serious pain in the arse, despite its obvious beauty.

I had already tried the world's saddle du jour - the Fizik Arione. No luck - as much as I yearned to have this new projectile design on my bike, there was no denying the sit bones. Being 100kg probably was the fatal flaw - putting the 'flex' in wingflex like the designers never anticipated.

The beautiful white leather Magma saddle arrived by post with a note from the R+R Director Sportif saying 'that blue piece of shit on your bike must go - happy birthday!' I'd recently submitted a polite request to the Style Council at R+R for some fettling of the new Cannondale System 6, already lurid in Team Liquigas's phosphorescent green and black.

Delighted to join the ranks of europhiles with their white seats, it was quickly fitted. San Marco holds great reverence for me in the history of cycling. When Slim once sold me his red Guercuiotti it came with his trademark San Marco Rolls, an impossibly uncomfortable platform that only 50,000km of hard riding would break in properly. Rolls feature on 2 of my restored bikes - a Merckx and a Bianchi.

I noted the Magma to be quite a sophisticated piece of engineering - the '2-4-5' after the name refers to the width of the sit-bones and general scale of the seat. It goes up to 255, but in all my time I've not seen one of those actually for sale. And to my delight the flat platform was at least as good as the long-used Flites.

And so I was happy camper #1, until about 500km worth of Melburnian flat-land later there was the hugest cracking sound accompanied by a distinct sagging feeling, and assuming I'd managed to do the unthinkable (break a Campy Record carbon seat post) Glen and I ground to a halt in West Williamstown.

The incident wasn't without precedent - riding with Glen on one visit to Melbourne we'd been far up the Maribyrnong River when I'd injudiciously forgotten to lift off the saddle for a speed hump and snapped the brand new Giant hire bike's Taiwanese carbon post. Long ride home standing up, and some explaining to do to the good people at Bike Now.

You don't really appreciate how much your seat contributes to your riding until you have to do 20km home with no platform to support you. The Magma had busted right through the middle.

The Wellington LBS did the decent thing and sought a warranty replacement, which was duly despatched. Scuttlebut on the net suggests I'm not the only rider to suffer a Magma meltdown, and I'll be philosophical when it inevitably happens again. The replacement sadly was black, so has to go ... though, I do wonder what the R+R Style Council would say about some white lever hoods over black tape?

Review Score:

Function: 5+ (8 while it works, 0 when it doesn't)
Form: 10 (sexy, plus bonus points for not hanging with the crowds of Fizik Freds either)
Price: 3 North of $240 RRP is a shocking amount of money to pay for a saddle, but I may be being over-harsh here as you don't see anything much under $200 in the desirable classes of Fizik or Selle Italia these days.

Stuff Reviewed: Continental GP4000S

Great tyre, shame about the fit.
by Nigel Dalton

It's hard to love a tyre after a frustrating 60 minutes spent vandalising a precious Campy neutron rim to wrestle one on. But 3 months after this purchase, and one further puncture (split valve seat - aaahhh!) I'm getting there.

Make no mistake - for tyre wear, stickiness, speed, ride quality, all the usual tyre characteristics, this is my top tyre choice. Getting it on and off my Campy rims? Give me a sandpaper chammy to ride any day.

Now first things first - yes, I finish with the valve. A habit of a lifetime, for which I've copped plenty of good-natured 'advice' from experts and I will still argue my point that it enables you to push the tube up and away from the rim should you be reduced to using a lever for the last few inches. Try that on the other side.

Picture 1 shows the result of the first 30 minutes of effort - hands only, having stretched the carcase like an old-school tubular as much as I could. It is nowhere near done. The next picture in the series represents a further 15 minutes effort, but it shows so little progress I've left it out. The next picture here is actually Picture 3 in the series!

Nothing to do but call NZ and the R+R helpline. 15 years ago I can recall actually abandoning in disgust a marriage of a Campy rim and a Conti tyre, and receiving the wisdom of ages that the Germans and Italians really just don't get along.

This time having parted with 22 quid each to Ribble and having drooled over how damn fine-looking these tyres are, I am not giving up!

All the time I am wrestling these things onto the rim, I am thinking one thing - what do I do on the road, knackered from the ride and needing the strength of Atlas to get it off, let alone back on again?

Robbo comes to the rescue with key tip number 1 - which to be fair I should have remembered from the motorcycling world where tyre changing involves huge levers and rack-like devices. Put some detergent on the bead!!

This one trick gets me to photo #3 featured above. It might not look like much, but it's a moon-shot away from the first result.

Thanks to some painful thumb dislocations while mountain-bike racing on filthy North Island mud-baths in the 1990s (temporary clicked in and out I'm pleased to report, but turning me into a grip-shift devotee instantly), I am very wary of using these digits to put tyres on these days. After 55 minutes of thumbs on these tyres I have used every trick I know - it now has to be the thing every cyclist dreads, the tyre lever to finish.

The yellow Topeak lightweight jobs fail instantly. It's down to the trusted Park Tools, and with a grimace the bead pops over the rim with a crack that sounds like a rifle. A neighbourly head pokes over the fence immediately - "you ok?" she asks. "Dunno yet" I respond - "if she doesn't pump up first time, I'll probably be quite ill indeed..."

Review Score:

Function: 6+ (10 on the road, 1 point for ease of assembly)
Form: 10 (big white type, minimalist black tread, little wear holes like a race motorcycle tyre, phwoarr...)
Price: 10 but only if you buy on the net. Expect to pay 3+ times the 22GBP I bought them for if you shop in a Melbourne bike shop.

Postscript: a blown valve seat forced the reluctant tester to have to remove the front tyre again 3 months after the initial fitting, and it was easier the 2nd time. The author is still puzzling over the right container to carry dishwashing liquid on the road however...

Benotto Advertisement