I still think there is far more to it than the nose width. The "sitting area" toward the rear can take any shape from convex, to flat, to channelled, in an effort to please every person out there. I tried a Brooks Pro last year, and just couldn't get along with the rounded top despite the fact that the width of the nose and rear sections were perfect for me -- I switched to narrower B17Ns and B5Ns, and the flatter top agrees much more with my perineum. Perhaps what erig007 is getting with saddles that have a maximum nose width are saddles with the right amount of width in the rear to support his sitbones.

I dug through the sq-lab collection of abstracts, and found it interesting (but not surprising) that many of them contradict. The natural tendency in that situation is to favor any that bolster your worldview. I was able to come away satisfied that if my saddle doesn't cause numbness or pain, and that I rose off the saddle occasionally while riding, that I shouldn't have any significant or long-lasting problems. Cool.