I've ridden everything from Avocet to Brooks to Persons to Selle Italia to the bucket seat on my recumbent to whatever, and my hiney has let me know what it likes and what it doesn't like, both for short neighborhood trips and for solo unsupported 24 hour endurance rides (the old Arizona Challenge). And the first thing I noticed is that a seat can have oodles of padding, but if it has a hard non-flexible pan, it's not gonna be all that great as the miles pile up. Whereas something that at first glance looks uncomfortable but flexes under you (such as a Unicanitor or similar) feels much better in the long term.

After I let my USCF license lapse (yes, that long ago) I decided that unless it's a bike built for pure speed then I wanted some cushy for my tushy. And then this type of saddle appeared on the market, and my butt said "yeah, this works". A moderate amount of padding, but more important a very flexible sprung pan augmented with springs on the rails. Soaks up road shock even better than 43 mm tires.






And so I have this type of saddle on nearly all my bikes - the chrome cruiser, the aluminum cruiser, the commuto-cruiser, the tandem, the fixie, the boingy bike, and even the Friday. It's a bit heavy for the racer, so on the Raleigh Pro I use a Unicanitor with a thin Grab-On pad I bought nearly 40 years ago that provides just enough thin cushioning.

I volunteer at a couple of non-profits fixing bicycles. At the one serving foster kids, the rule on saddles is "it has to look like new", even if that means taking a used, beat-up, yet comfortable seat off and replacing it with a shiny new abomination saddle. But that's the way it is.


And they tell me to toss out that old ugly seat, and so it ends up safely stored in my Strategic Saddle Stockpile (it's "curating", not hoarding).


And with a new seat cover, it'll work just like new. And given that new versions of my favorite saddle now go for nearly $70 retail, I'm happy to have a few salvaged spares.