I'm a real believer of use whatever works best for you, and these things are just bike seats. When I thought of trying one, I knew the weight was always going to be more than other seats, the cost was about $100 and compared to all kinds of good bike seats out there this wasnt that much more, seems lots of them are easily 60-70 and up, so I figured the diff wasnt that much and if I didnt like it, I'd sell it. Maintenance, I really only put a smidgen of the stuff that came with it about once a year, so the main issue is making sure it doesnt get left out in the rain, and use a waterproof cover on it when riding in the rain--this isnt a real prob for me, but agree that not having to do this and or worry about rain is nice with non leather seats.

For me its just nice that I can ride all day and not be sore, and can get on the bike the next day for another 5 hours riding and not be sore--Im sure there a other seats that would work for me also, its just that I have these things and they work, I certainly wouldnt ride on them if they didnt. When my first turned out to work so well, I was very wary of spending money on another seat that maybe wouldnt work out so well and I wouldnt be able to return, losing the money spent, so thats why I got another Brooks just because I knew it worked for me. It would be great to be able to try all kinds of diff seats, but its rare to see demos in the stores here, and so there is a real risk you could spend X dollars and then be kind of so-so about the seat.