Fist off, I have to say that my Unicanitor #1 ranks up there as one of my favorite/most comfy saddles of all time along with my Ideale 90, and off topic Flite TT.
So needless to say, I was pretty excited when I heard Cinelli was going to reissue them with a few tweaks to make it even more comfortable. Could that be possible, more comfy?
NO.
My LBS has a pretty good relationship with Cinelli and Columbus so they were able to get a demo which they let me try out- it lasted all of two hours, then back to my original #1.
According to Cinelli (please note, this is second hand knowledge), the original unicanitor molds no longer exist, they were discarded during a factory move. So they decided to start from scratch with this model. The result, which can be seen here:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/
http://lh5.ggpht.com/
it's a mixture of the original shape along with the MX version made in the 80's. Note the Cinelli logo across the back, exactly like the Unicanitor MX. The MX also had a wider tail, as does this re-issue. That part was actually somewhat nice, as I was a big fan of the MX. But that is where the fun ended.
The new saddles, or at least this demo is made from a thick plastic and has little to no flex- IMHO, the whole point of riding a plastic saddle is the amount of flex you get. Without that, what's the point? You might as well put an 80's plastic K-Mart saddle on your bicycle, which is exactly where this re-issue fits in.
Hopefully, Cinelli is still getting feedback and will resolve this issue before it comes up, but october is only a couple months away.
Has anyone else had a chance to ride the demo versions kicking around? I'd love to hear what your experiences were.
Sean Flores
San Francisco, CA