NOS88

Recommending specific saddles will guarantee one thing - a boost in the economy as you spend lots of money trying one saddle after another. I think it best to approach this from a different angle. First, an upright position will place more weight on your sit bones. Now the question becomes, "Is the saddle is wide enough to allow you sit bones to be on the right place on the saddle?" All saddles are designed with an ideal region where the sit bones should meet the saddle. So, where and how do your sit bones now rest on the saddle? This is something I would want to know so I could compare it with other saddle widths and contours. Second, I would think about the firmness of the saddle. As you probably know a firm saddle allows that sit bones to perch on top. A softer saddle allows the sit bones to sink into the saddle, often creating a different kind of pressure on the sit bones and areas around it. As back-wards as it seems a softer saddle can often cause more sit bone soreness than a firmer one. If it were me, I'd make a trip to a shop with one of the devices to measure just how wide your sit bones are. I'd then take this measurement and see where this places my sit bones on my current saddle. If they are in the center of the intended area, I'd then look at density. If they are not, I'd adjust saddle width accordingly. Unfortunately, IMO, it is a trail and error process with density. It took me a long while to find out that very subtle differences in density make a big difference in comfort. For example, two saddle I like and use seem to work best in different situations. I have the Selle Italia SLK Gel saddle (even with the gel it is fairly firm, because the gel is very, very thin). On some days this saddle is a bear the first 10 minutes of a ride. It feel uncomfortably hard. Yet, on rides over three hours it is my saddle of choice. I also use a Koobi Xenon and it's great up until about two hours. It's slightly softer than the SLK and after two hours my sit bones just aren't as happy on this saddle.

I hope this question isn't offensive, but what are you sitting on hard surfaces after a ride where you sit bones end up being sore? I'd sure work to avoid complicating the situation by not allowing recovery. I would think that sitting on hard chairs is not the best way to facilitate recovery, but I could be wrong on this.


Ah, what the heck. I'll show you how weird the whole saddle thing can be. Below are the five saddles that I currently have in use and with which I have no problem. If there's a discernable pattern I don't know what it is.