Originally Posted by citypigeon
if you current saddle is hurting your @ss, i'd suggest getting a new, pre-softened one because a new new brooks will take you quite a long time to break in.
Not so, at least not for everyone. Most B17 owners will tell you that they break in surprisingly fast. Mine gave no pain or numbness on 50+km rides after a week of commuting (14 kms/day) and was nice for 100+ kms about a week after that. This was a huge improvement over my previous gelled, center cutout anus puncher. Keep in mind, these numbers are not supposed to represent the upper limits of mander's ass tolerance vs. Brooks: they are just how far I happened to bike after getting the B17. No lie, over many 1000s of kms the Brooks has not once caused me ass bruises (though it did start to numb as it stretched out, before I tensioned it a bit).