First Look: WTB Volt Carbon

The WTB SST seat was special as it was made for mountain biking. The mid-90’s was an era where mountain biking was changing very quickly, and the parts needed to catch up to demands. After market upgrades for major products were pretty common. You’d buy the best suspension fork, but you would also invest in a cartridge from another manufacturer so it worked.

The SST had a dropped nose and rounded back, which helped with riding further forward on the seat when climbing, getting off the back, and in general not getting hung up when riding in baggy shorts – which was just starting to become more popular for mountain bikers.

The SST is still in the WTB range, but plenty of their other saddles borrow from some of these same ideas.

The Volt Carbon is more reminiscent of later models, like the compactly padded Silverado. But it has the slight nose drop to aid getting over the front on climbs, a nice level section to sit on, a pressure relief channel, reinforced shoulders – and some sweet carbon rails.

It’s aimed at anything from road to enduro, as the padding is deep enough for all day comfort, but the weight is a paltry 182g. While there might be concern about carbon fibre rails, they are solid carbon. The are very strong, and I would hazard to say far stronger than the usual cheaper steel used on stock saddles that come on bikes. While I have bent a few seat rails since I read the review of the WTB SST, I have never broken carbon rails on any of my mountain bikes.

The shell itself is also carbon, allowing more comfort to come through flex. The comfort from a bike seat really is about more than just the padding. Although the ‘DNA padding’ on this model is high quality, it’s the location and shape of the padding, as well as the rails and base materials that all combine for comfort.

The dropped nose helps when moving around.

Fitting

Of course, with 9mm x 7.6mm rails the seat won’t suit every seatpost. But many common manufacturers have clamp options to suit. This model went easily onto a 3T seatpost.

Edges are reinforced for the inevitable down time.

I’ve only had a little trail time on the seat so far, but it’s been astoundingly comfortable. It replaced a similar level seat with carbon rails, but a different shape. The support that the 135mm width has is great. The Volt does come in 142mm and 150mm widths, but not in the carbon option.

The carbon option is $329 – about what you would expect for the materials and quality. While the Comp is $59, the Pro model has the same quality DNA padding, rider tuned base and cromoly rails. It’s 219g and just $129.

Stay tuned, we will have a review in a coming issue. For more details, check out the Australian WTB page or go and see your local bike shop.