+1

Mine just arrived in the mail. As a Clyde, I shelled out close to $200 for mine, but am quite hopeful that this is The One True Saddle for me. ;)
Tomorrow and Saturday I'm going to put 35-40 miles each day on it, we'll see!

Another Brooks fanboy checking in. :thumb:

I've a Brooks and a Selle Anatomica, both are good for me. The Brooks B-17 took a bit longer than I'd planned for it to become comfortable ( about 1200 miles ) I'd give the Selle Anatomica the edge over all for comfort. I found my Selle at 50% off due to a discontinued color.

My Brooks B17 was comfy from day 1. I've never had any pain.

The Selles are obviously Brooks copies. But that doesn't make them inferior. Their cutouts look more aggressive than Brooks'.

I wonder how one of their cut-out saddles would compare to a sprung Brooks.

Maybe I'll try one of those instead of getting a Brooks for the new bike. I like supporting an American company even more than I do a British one.

FWIW - My B67 took a few hundred miles to soften up, and it is still getting softer. Even when it was brand new and hard, it was more comfortable than any stock saddle I've ever had. The only ones that are close are the old Schwinn mattress saddles. (before the vinyl got sun-damaged and cracked and the foam disintegrated....)

I believe the Selles use a softer leather than the Brooks and their selling point is they are more comfortable due to a greater "hammock effect" and a quicker break-in.

You just can't talk about it, I know ;)

They're similar in material because they're both leather and have rivets but the cutout allows the saddle to flex more independently with your leg motion. Also Selle Anatomica claim there is no break-in period. In my brief experience so far, I would agree.

You hunkered over on drop bars , how far below the saddle are they?

rule of 'Butt' .. more upright, the wider the saddle..

Hot and sweaty Fresno, the way a thick leather saddle
will absorb some of it, may help,
as does a absorbent, though now thankfully faux-Chamois liner, in bike shorts..


Out on the wet coast, I'm using, like, a Fizik Vitesse, instead.. under a plastic bag..
nothing to damage when the rain dumps buckets, while I'm having a few Pints.
:beer:

No one has like my recommendation, but then I guess I'm not a bicyclist. However, I took a grueling trip a few weeks ago and my arse had no complaints when my knees and everything else complained.

I recently put a Serfas Tegu saddle on my CX bike, and I'm pretty happy with it.

I had first thought about the Serfas Carma, but I am beginning to lean more towards a brooks flyer s

Me arse must be unsophisticated - it cannot bring itself to sit on a $100+ saddle. It was fine with a $20 velo, but its owner decided to be proactive and get a Terry to relieve taint pressure, at $69.95. A Planet Bike ARS of similar design is $29.95. For commuting, I am only on the bike 45 minutes max each way, with an 8-10 hour rest in between, spending a lot of money on a saddle doesn't make sense.

Oh, yea - the $70 saddle is on my road bike for 100+ mile rides, the commute bike has a $20 Velo on it. Taint no problem with either one for its use. Twasn't no problem for 100 miles on the velo, either....

Funny thread. fyi - Brooks is owned by Selle Royal, Italy.

I've got a Brooks B17 Special and while it's not entirely pain free, it still has only about 1000 miles on it and it has been getting more comfortable recently. It was also more comfortable than my bike's stock saddle right out of the box.

It may depend somewhat where your pain is. If you're a new rider with 100 miles _total_ and the pain is at your sit bones, tough it out a bit more and you may find that those muscles get used to riding and you're OK. Not a lot more, but another week of regular rides or so. Now that I see the original poster is female, I'm less qualified to answer here, but I think the previous still applies. If the pain is not at the sit bones, you may find that moving the saddle forward a bit, or tweaking tilt makes things better. Your goal is to move the pressure points to the sit bones and their adjacent muscles. As others have said, there are tons of saddles < $200. Some women specific, many not. I'm male and have been happy with saddles from Specialized, WTB, and the Velo Orange leather "Brooksish" models.

My main concern is that the stock saddle isn't wide enough for my sit bones, which I why aside from the normal break in period for the new saddle I'm assuming I feel discomfort.

I'm open to the possibility of any brand of saddle, I'm sure I ll try several before finding the right one for me :thumb:

Just put in two 40 mile rides over the past few days on my Selle An-Atomica Titanico X. I haven't had a Brooks before, but I've had a number of other sprung saddles and the An-Atomica feels like it is sprung. All the flexing it does gives you the same sensation you'd have with a cushy sprung saddle. Even when I'm coasting and I go over an irregularity in the road it flexes and absorbs the impact. I'm quite impressed so far.

The under the saddle video of their proto-type in use shows how it flexes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wX52DTAUg0