Originally Posted by
vesteroid
I have 2 of the selle italia you mentioned and love them for centuries. For shorter rides or club rides, I ride the selle itallia slr superflow...both the saddles in 145
BUT all of these saddles take getting use to. I dont care what you ride, if you think theres instant comfort on 4-6 hours in the saddle, your mistaken in my opinion. If I come off the bike for a week or more, I always, and I mean always hurt after my first long ride....over the next week, but but gets use to the saddle again and then not so much pain, but its never perfect.
"Perfect" is a big word, but my saddles pretty much disappear, so I am comfortable for 4-6 hours without a problem. I use a variety. The B17 on my touring bike is entirely comfortable, and I am frequently on that bike for upwards of six hours. The Swift on my SS/FG is pretty much as good, thoughnow it is on that bike I rarely use it for hours at a time. The bike I race has a Fizik Aliante on it. This is not quite as good as either of the Brooks, but is fine, I have ridden centuries on it with no issues. Finally, I have a cheap stock Giant saddle which looks as if it should be terrible but is in fact extremely comfortable.
On the other side of the equation, I absolutely cannot ride Specialized saddles. The Toupe cut me to pieces and the Phenom, while not as agonising, simply took longer to beat me up.
So I guess what I am saying, to you and the OP, is that it does matter what you choose and that unless you are very unfortunate it is likely that there is a saddle out there that is as nearly perfect as makes no difference. The trouble is that there appears to be no method other than trial and error for discovering what that saddle is.