i have a specialized toupe ti 143mm saddle and a selle italia slr gel flow (i never tried just the regular selle italia slr) saddle, the one with the cutout. i liked the toupe at first (upgraded from a stock fuji saddle with tons of cushioning) but then i got the selle italia and started liking the toupe less and less. the selle italia is a flatter saddle overall which seems to make my butt happier. that said, i now have a fizik arione and it seems to be the best of the lot so far. tricky stuff, this search for the perfect saddle stuff. good luck.