Originally Posted by
Pinyon
Specialized saddle dealers have this butt-o-meter foam pad that you sit on, that tells you how wide your hip bones are that rest on the saddle. Not the fat. The bones. You want your bones on the saddle. Once you figure out how wide you want the back of the saddle to be, you can buy any brand that falls into that width.
If you don't have a dealer in your area, or you don't like the idea of having your rear-end measured, then I suggest that you ask a local bike shop if you can try out some of the brands of saddles that they have laying around before you buy one. Bike shops often switch-out stock saddles for other brands when people buy new bikes or switch saddles at-the-shop. Most of those discarded saddles end up with a big box in the repair shop.
I know of a couple of bikes shops around here that will let you try those out, if you promise to buy a brand-new saddle of that brand that you are settled on from their store. After you try out a few, they often just sell you the saddle that you tried out for like $10 - $40.
B-17s do a similar thing to me. I found that they are just too wide and flat in the back for my behind. The saddles that work for me are Specialized Avatar and Alias (both 148 and 155 mm wide), and I have an old Terry Liberator that I still love on my mountain bike. Once you find one that works, stick with it.
I have had eary cycling history with Brooks saddles and have to say they are extremly well made, but can be a bear to break in, as I have experienced. Bein young and unwise, I never considered that the Brooks was not for me backthen. It was my experince that you don't break in a Brooks saddle, it breaks you in. It is either for you or not.
Regarding the Specialized seat measuring device, I read (and have tried with great success), a means of creating your own "butt-o-meter" (pardon the crude reference.). Lay a plain piece of paper on a hard flat surface. Wearing your cycling shorts, sit on the paper. (While noone is watching, reach down and feel where your two sit bones are and carefully mark on the paper where those bones impact the paper. (get up quickly before anyone sees you, or you will be the laughing stock of all your (former) friends
). Measure the distance between the marks and match that against the sweet spot on your Brooks. If they match, a break in is all you need. If you have a mismatch, consider a different saddle. You do not want to agravate the perinum. It leads do numbness, and ever erectile dysfuntion. (I experienced that one personally, so you don't want to go there. Believe me.)
If reconsidering saddles, take into consideration the shape of the saddle. How high or broad the sweet spot is as well as the sides of the saddle. As a true Clyde, I am a little fuller in the thighs and found that a saddle with extra on the sides tends to rub against the inner thigh, so I use a flat, saddle with side cutout. It's basically a flat triangle with no sides. It does not look that comfortable, but it actually disappers under me when I ride.
I have the Selle SLC (without the gel). Mine is the Selle SLC Carbonio model.
http://www.selleitalia.com/eng/index.html