A friend of mine had the VO saddle and was unable to get comfortable on it. He's a lightweight and the saddle was too hard for him. I believe VO's choice to bond the leather to a fiber material prevents a proper break-in. Now, I have three B17s, and all were comfortable out of the box. I weigh 175 pounds so I may be just heavy enough to get the leather to flex.

I have five thousand miles or more on each saddle, and I've yet to touch the adjustment screw on any of them. When I received my saddles, I coated them with a light amount of Proofide then left the saddles in my hot car on a summer afternoon. No neat's foot oil, no motor oil, just Proofide. The leather is soft enough, IMHO, and adding anything to make it softer only hastens the stretching.

The VO saddles are fine, and VO is a great company with which to do business, but Brooks has the leather saddle perfected. Much like Carradice, if you're going to buy that sort of product, you're best served to buy the original.