Tkb Review: 2021 RIDE ENGINE Contour

Sizes Available: XS, S, M, L, XL
Sizes Tested: L

Ride Engine Says:

The Contour is our first-ever seat harness, and great attention was placed in its design in order to address all the shortcomings of traditional seat harnesses. The key design element in the Contour is the sacrum adjustment plate, which utilizes Curv® material that brings our hard-shell harness DNA into a seat harness. The sacrum adjustment plate creates a tighter, more supportive fit along the sacrum by removing the gap that is present in most seat harnesses. Additionally, the Contour is far more compact than other seat harnesses, fitting lower on the hips for added freedom, and has a secure, easy-to-adjust belt entry and adjustable padded leg loops.

Visit for more info: www.rideengine.com/collections/harnesses/products/2021-contour-seat-harness

TKB Says:

The Contour has been in development for a couple of years””we’ve seen a few iterations surface here in Santa Cruz, but now it’s a finished product that is being offered at a time when some of the other more popular seat harnesses have left the market. At first glance, the Contour features a rigid plate on the back and thicker backing that ensures you don’t get the vintage seat harness experience where load points tend to cinch up and pinch you in awkward places. The Contour is a bit bulkier than traditional seat harnesses and has padding that sits on your hip and along your back where the carbon support plate integrates with adjustable webbing tensioners to size the harness to your waist. It comes with standard thigh straps that are encased in neoprene, built nice and wide to distribute the load. The Contour is designed with webbing straps that allow you to use either the new Unity spreader bar (sold separately) or one of the older Ride Engine spreader bars.

The Contour did a good job of carrying a lot of the load in the thigh straps while keeping the load in the butt of the harness without having a ton of load higher up. Some seat harnesses tend to pull too much from the waist, but the Contour kept the pulling point low and away from the ribs while giving a solid all-encompassing feel. The thick webbing straps disperse tension on your legs and the adjustable plate in the back helps spread the load rather than putting all the spreader bar tension along the harnesses’ waistline. Like most seat harnesses you pay a price in vertical flexibility for all that support, but that’s the nature of the beast, and this beast is very comfortable.