[QUOTE=Rowan;6075946]
Foam/gel saddles also have a terrible habit of wearing out where the material collapses and sometimes it's almost impossible to find the same model for a replacement, or something similar. With Brooks, there are no problems because the wearing out takes such a long time and there are always replacements.

[QUOTE]

This situation turned into a huge problem for me. Some years ago I had a Advocet (can't remember the model) that I loved so when I had an accident that destroyed the saddle I bought another only to find that it had been remodeled and I hated it. Thus started a 18 year search that involved over a dozen saddles trying to find one that was comfy. I found an ok one from Selle Italia that had a cut out but still didn't like it like the old Advocet; then the padding began to flatten out and I decided to give Brooks a try since I could have bought 3 or 4 Brooks for cost of all the saddles I tried!

So in the mail came a Swift TI about 6 years ago and I-and my butt, have been happy ever since. I liked the Swift so much I bought the B17 TI when I had my touring bike built, and it's sweet. Yeah their heavier then a standard saddle so if your a weight weenie forget it; but if your butt is a weenie then get one.

In addition to the reasons that Rowan mentioned for comfort; leather breaks into your butt just as a pair of shoes do, not forcing your butt to try to break into the saddle, in otherwords it molds to your butt.