The Bike Lab is about upgrading your bike and building your dream rig. To that end, these are some of our top recommended upgrades. Most are things we actually use on our own rigs, or would feel comfortable recommending to our best friends. They are classic parts, smart designs, and in some cases new and revolutionary bits.

The list was compiled by Guitar Ted and Arleigh Jenkins, two real life bicycle mechanics and passionate cyclists. This is solely their considered opinions on what is a “Top Upgrade”. In the future, look for more “Top Upgrade” parts that will be getting reviewed here on the Bike Lab.

What It Is: Or more appropriately, what they are. WTB saddles, first introduced in late ‘96, have become a widely used saddle and WTB has expanded the line up to include just about every type of saddle you could think of for performance cycling.

Why Is It A Mechanics Choice: First off, saddles are a highly personal thing. Not everyone is going to love a WTB saddle. That said, they have more OEM spec than just about any other name brand saddle line, and they have several models that have found devotees amongst mountain bikers, especially endurance cyclists. The padding, shapes, and styles of WTB saddles make them one of the most well rounded offerings in mountain bike saddles out today.

The Mechanic Says: Okay, your saddle of choice might be something entirely different, but WTB seems to work for me pretty well. If I had to choose an off road saddle for a customer that didn’t really know any better, I would recommend a WTB saddle. Chances are it would be either a hit, or pretty dang close to the mark. Again, they have several different styles that work across a wide range of posteriors, so it’s hard to choose something other than their saddles when shopping for an off road performance perch. Add to this WTB’s Saddle Demo program and it gets even harder to choose something else.