It’s been reported in Japan that specialized mirror saddles are melting due to certain chemicals (oxybenzone and homosalate) in certain varieties of sunscreen and chamois cream.
Just a heads up to anyone who decided to spend $500 on such a saddle…
So why is sun or chamois screen getting on the saddle? Why are Japanese people using sun screen in later November? So many questions…
Mine has held up well, but I am usually not riding it naked.
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I usually sweat when riding my bike…
Do you have a link to any more info? I searched every way but, Sunday and found nada.
https://roppongi.express/2021/11/28/mirror-saddle-attention20211128/ it’s not really melted so much as deformed
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I sweat too, and have ridden this saddle thousands of miles in all conditions.
Looks like new. Maybe a fugazi?
I own two mirror saddles and have done for a quite a while and they show no signs of melting.
Not necessarily “fake news”, but I do think there is plenty missing in the form of more details about that failure. That type of localized change indicates some thing special happened there, IMO. There is no way that just sitting on that lead to that shape. Even “strategic application” of chemicals wouldn’t likely lead to that loading and deformation.
I fully believe that chemicals may be related here, but I think there are one or more key details missing here.
The cause is the chemical substances [ Oxybenzone, Homosalate] contained in sunscreens and chamois creams .
Why is it in the chamois cream? I don’t worry about UV exposure there. Why is someone using this saddle at burning man?