What does the lady sit on?
 

My girlfriend has been riding along for one and a half year now and she has developed a remarkable speed. Sometimes it's hard for me to keep her wheel. So she rides a lot and we also do some longer distance rides. Last time we did over 200 km, in two days nonetheless, but the problem is that her saddle is not exactly suitable for a female riding such distances. I was on a Turbo and my butt was quite sore, but she rides a Rolls and halfway on the ride back home she could hardly stay in the saddle.

Now this is a personal matter in a 'sit your ass down' kind of way, but I would really appreciate some advice from y'all about the sort of seat that makes the mademoiselle a happy rider. Preferably without making the C&V pristine champagne coloured Champion Mondial look like a dorky object, but I'm open to all suggestions! I might add that she doesn't wear cheap riding shorts.

my wife has a women's specifc Brooks B17. i believe B17 "S"....its shorter but wider than the normal B17.
shes been on some metric centuries with no problems.
there's also the added benefit of Brooks being leather, which gradually conforms to your butt.

I've seen woman specific Turbos before.

I think she just has to try more saddles, or get a professional fit (bone measurement)

I am a woman and ride both Rolls and Flite saddles without problems.

Much to my surprise, after trying several different saddles, my wife prefers the B72 on her Raleigh Tourist. It is essentially new and I did not think she would suffer through the break-in process. Apparently she did not suffer and likes it more every time she rides.

After trying many newer models, a woman's model Ideale model 6 is my wife's favorite saddle now. She doesn't ride much though and I imagine that is a big part of getting comfortable with a more racy saddle.

Something from Terry, perhaps?

My lady friend has liked the selle italia type saddles with cut-outs like the XO etc... Here saddles were starting to fall apart and she was starting to complain about them hurting...foam wears out. I bought her a B17S and crossed my fingers thinking she would not like it... turns out she loves it and finds it very comfortable, though she does complain for sore sitbones after a long ride (2+ hours), but never during. Her previous complaints were not for her sits bones. I was worried because the B17 needs the nose up to high for proper fit and this is on a drop bar bike, but she says it is fine... go figure.. b17s don't work for me with drop bars, they are aweful, but I am also a tall fellow and the steel nose piece is basically jabbing me in the scrotum... so.... I digress.

She has a womens WTB of some kind on her mountain bike and says it is great. She wears riding shorts of course, but favours tri shorts for their thinner chamois.

I had to take my wife to the LBS so they can fit her on the "ass-O-meter" Once we found where her sit bones were, she picked out a womens specific saddle, she couldn't be happier.

I think they were called "Lady Turbo" saddles by Selle Italia..... but I would rather find a modern woman specific saddle for women I know as I suspect the saddle manufacturers now understand more the anatomical needs that a woman has for saddles these days. Back then, I supect that they just shorten the nose and widen the rear on then current men's saddle designs and voila!, a woman's saddle it was!....I think there's more to it than that....

Good article on seat angles and position.

http://www.fezzari.com/blog/2010/09/03/saddleposition/

May take a while...

I ride Brooks saddles right out of the box. My bride has one B-66 that came off one of my bikes that is well broken in, it is just okay. Her favorite saddle is the Selle Royal 8493 Gel city saddle. I had to source it from Dutch Bike Bits in the Netherlands.

Aaron :)

+1 my wife has been riding on a Ti Terry Butterfly for years; loves it!

When I planned my wife's bike build, I scored an EC original white Lady Turbo from CL in Florida...right down the street from where my in-laws live, and my MIL was very happy to go get it and send it up. Major points for me doing something special for her little girl! :thumb:

However...once the bike came together, with North Road bars, it was clear that a racing type saddle was not going to cut it, and was kind of pointless for short rides, maybe 20 miles once in a while, in an upright postion. Wife was sure that she wanted a big fat gel saddle, and before she could go get one herself, I got her a Brooks B67s. She loves it. It kind of makes the lightweight frame moot but she's happy, so I am.

My wife has an Avocet Ladies saddle on each of her 2 bikes. (bought in 1985)

My wife rides a Zefal with anatomical cutout that I got on clearance at Target, she's tried multiple other saddles including a couple B-17s and the Zefal has won out over all of them in her case.

Enough with these old school saddles. Specialized Romin Evo, done.

Except of course it is not a female specific saddle; the Specialized Oura Pro/ Ruby Pro are Specialized high end female saddles, certainly on the same level as the Romin Evo

My wife uses a Terry saddle. Many of the women I ride with use Terry saddles. No other saddle has such a presence on group rides except for Brooks.

The forums can suggest hundreds of saddles but only one opinion will matter 'in the end'. ;)

bbattle, I see what you did there.

My wife likes the Planet Bike women's saddle. Whenever I test her bike, I like it, too. Maybe I have a big butt. Oops: don't mean to imply my wife's is big; it's tiny.

My wife has liked her Serfas RX dual-level with cutout saddle for enough years, miles, and long tours that the cover has worn off, but she's still happy down there.

https://www.serfas.com/products/view...le|75|2|page:1

My daughter in-law's new-for-her Centurion has the same one, and she's happy with it, too.

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions guys and girls! Of course not every woman has the same shape (like men) so there's no single right answer to my question. But all this feedback is certainly gonna help deciding and finding the one saddle! But right now the saddle Dfrost pointed out has got her attention, because of the colour... Doh! ;)

Just today, riding with the wife on the bike that I assign to her as her bike, she was dwarfing that seat.. :D My wife is kind of large back there, and I have a Fizik on her 85 Raleigh Competition. I asked her was the seat uncomfortable? She said no.. ;) In other words, with her rather large posterior, she was fully comfortable on this bike with this seat.. ;)

http://www.cehoward.net/newral139.jpg

What does my lady sit on? None of your beeswax, thank you very much!

...she seems to be content with the one that came on her vintage 09 Bianchi step-thru.