Brooks has other leather hammock saddles besides the B17, some wider, some sprung. Check them out at the Harris Cyclery website. One thing that is pointed out there is that the typical saddle you see on "10-speed" bikes and their descendants is a racing saddle that has the advantage of being lightweight itself and is really only suitable for lightweight riders while racing (or training, I suppose). Every other kind of riding (besides racing) and every other kind of rider (i.e. Clydes) should in my view be using a sprung saddle, as found on all the classic European street bikes and American cruisers, especially if the majority of your riding is in a position other than down on dropped bars. I think this is not a situation in which the walk-it-off ethos of football players is appropriate. Seek your comfort. Otherwise, you are actually injuring yourself.

I think if you watch racers you will see that their riding is so energetic that a great deal of their weight is borne by their feet on the pedals. Many of them also stand quite a bit. They spend very little time, relatively, plotzed on the saddle. For me, and perhaps for many other Clyde's, it's just the other way around, and a racing style saddle for my kind of riding is just a silly idea. Anyway, I've just ordered an alternative Brooks saddle for my 1985 Stumpjumper (purchased recently). The stock saddle I got with it is definitely a racing style saddle made, I believe, with case hardened stainless steel covered with a thin coating of skin stifling vinyl.