I used to ride quite a bit (no real touring but a few centuries and the like) and am now getting back into it. My butt, of course, is a teensy bit tender.

Which made me wonder: back in the day I rode an ancient Schwinn mountain bike with the stock seat and had few problems even on really long rides.

That seat may have luckily been the 'right' seat for my butt but I'm wondering how much of comfort is the right seat, and how much is your butt toughening up? This is probably intangible but what do you think?