save weight in the wheels, tires, cranks, pedals, shoes, etc...things that you revolve and push with your muscles. choose comfort and proper fit for all else.

I just bought myself a Team Pro. Looks awesome in dark brown with my green bike. Plus, it's a whole 10 grams lighter than the B17, so I'll be much faster. Will post pics soon.

The most comfortable saddle I've ever ridden was a sparkly purple slick vinyl no-name unit on my Centurion. I have a Professional that came on my Professional in my sig, but it's pretty dry and stiff right now, as 37-year-old leather tends to get. I hit it with a good layer of Proofide today and set it in the sun for a while; will do so again in a week and then mount it on my Trek and start re-breaking-in.

I'm not looking forward to it. All those narrow compound curves have great inherent strength and my nethers are surprisingly dainty.

not to mention you can ride a brooks for 30 years, put it on fleabay and get a pretty good chunk of your investment back.

I don't see anything there for that price. Treefort has them for $80 btw.

One of the best thing about leather saddles for me is the ability to ride in any sort of clothing. I'm not sure exactly what it is about them, but I'm a lot more comfortable in jeans or non-cycling shorts on leather saddles than I am on typical plastic shell ones.

I'm starting to gain experience with a titanium rail Berthoud Aravis, heck, the weight "penalty" on this is only an ounce or two over a classic road saddle like San Marcos Rolls.

I've had lots of different Brooks', never regretted the weight once - I'm starting to slow down now in my advancing years, but I used to be a lot more concerned about this. The only gripes about Brooks I ever had were:

1) The Brooks Imperial cutout did not agree w/my anatomy

2) The Brooks Conquest sprung saddle always squeaked - I could stop it for a month or two w/various tricks but it always came back pretty quickly. Also, since the springing action tends to stretch the top a bit, the equilibrium point for saddle tightness will always become a shade looser than an unsprung saddle, the top will tend to have a little more sag in springs uncompressed position than an unsprung saddle. If you tighten the top in this position to that of an unsprung saddle, the springing action will inevitably stretch it back to that equilibrium point of a bit of sag. If you are not aware of this, you can be chasing that tight top and prematurely stretch out the leather top.

FWIW, this experience was based upon routinely riding lots of unpaved gravel roads. It may not be as evident riding on smoother pavement, but in that case the springs are sort of redundant anyhow.

Beyond that, I never felt that the springs on mine provided as much shock relief as expected. Overall, I've found riding slightly wider tires at a little lower pressure to be an overall better approach to this issue when necessary. In addition to providing better shock relief to my tush, this also provides the same to the whole bike, diminishing the rattling/fatigue/impact issues for various parts.

A plain old B17 is a great deal and a heck of a saddle.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44586860@N07/6113096948/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44586860@N07/6112586023/

I've put only about 20 miles on it so far. Honestly all the ominous talk of break in had me expecting worse. It's definitely stiff, but not rectum compacting stiff. And I already appreciate being able to ride in jeans without sticking to the saddle.

I dunno, I put about 25 miles in on the old Pro this afternoon. Honestly it didn't feel that bad on the bike but now I'm getting cramping in my grundle. Not really painful, just... Weird. I'm going to keep at it, but I hope this doesn't happen every ride.

This.

My B17 imperial has been my friend for 3500 miles this year. You will get it when you pry it from my cold dead buttocks.

You didn't page through far enough. There isn't one for 60 but two or three pages in was a B17 for 76 shipping paid.

Sim

I couldn't agree more with this part of this post. I too, ride on a lot of back country section trails. I ride a vintage road bike with larger than normal tires (35c); they are wonderful shock absorbers. In fact I'm getting ready to outfit this bike with 650b wheels and tires. I did this to my wife's bike a number of years ago to get away from toe overlap on a small frame. However, watching her ride over the years has made me wonder if I shouldn't have them on mine. This winter I'm going to do it. I ride an old b15 on this bike and love it.

My folder, that I've dragged all over the world literally, has a conquest on it. I love the conquest on the folder. If it squeaks I'm unaware of it as I'm partially deaf; so blissfully ignorant of any squeaking going on.

Sim