jsdavis

I noticed recently my butt has been hurting especially on longer hill climbs which has never happened before. This is accompanied by occasional thumping noise which I found is the saddle hitting against the head of the seatpost. I am thinking this did not happen in the past ,but I'm not entirely certain.

With heavy pressure I can push the middle of the saddle on to the head of the seatpost though I cannot hold it there.

The saddle is SDG FXR. I have used the saddle for maybe 35 000km.

shelbyfv

Yes, they can wear out in a variety of ways.

79pmooney

If you are contacting the seatpost, the saddle is dead. (Exception: all leather traditional saddles where tightening the nut under the nose may save it.)

Replace it before you ride over an obstavle that has you bottoming out hard.

Ben

caloso

I've worn the leather clean off a couple of Selle Italias. Also the plastic or CF underneath can crack. If it's bottoming out on the head of the seatpost, I would replace it.

gsa103

Yes, the padding gets compressed, the shell can crack or get distorted. The shell is especially prone to cracking at the rails. Your mileage is typical for a worn out saddle.

dabac

Yes, saddles can wear out. Both openly and in less easily spotted ways.
My favourite saddle is onto its 3rd skin.
The shell/pan of another cracked straight across.
One developed an annoying creak as the rails squirmed in the nose mount and had to be lubed regularly.

sdmc530

yes, I had to replace mine this year, padding was just powdered and not doing a anything. The seams were starting to let go.....it was time.

jsdavis

Thank you for confirming my suspicions.

The cover on this saddle is actually still in great shape except the logos are smearing and coming off. The cover is some kind of synthetic material, maybe vinyl or some such and it has no seams or stitching.

Drew Eckhardt 

Saddles wear out. I eventually cracked a Selle Italia Turbomatic 2 which significantly increased its flex.