Juan Foote

Long story short, been fitted, did some testing a few years back, and with the tools and available test saddles (at the time) I ended up with a Specialized Toupe+ in a width I can't recall. It's been a superb saddle and I have ridden on it mostly trouble free for years. As of late...well let me back up. I haven't been riding much at all. I have gained weight, and since then when I ride I have been experiencing severe discomfort and issue with the saddle. In discussion with my doctor about the issue he suggests I find a new saddle.

So, current saddle is comfortable aside from the perineum. Sit bones are right, everything else is good. If I slant the nose of the saddle slightly it helps the issue, but I constantly have to slide back.
I have two Trek stores and a Wal Mart nearby that carry saddles. I have tried both the Wal Mart comfort saddles that are "made" (branded) Bell IIRC. The women's saddle on her current bike is almost comfortable, but way too padded. The other comfort saddle is well, untenable. The Trek store carries nothing that the Specialized store and tools I bought from before had/have.
Beyond just going out and blindly buying saddles....

How do you go about selecting, much less purchasing a saddle from somewhere, particularly online?

bruce19

Trial & error

toast3d

The most comfortable saddle I've ever used came from an assorted parts bin at a local shop. It was full of stuff that had been pulled off of stock bikes while they were being set up for customers. I purchased the saddle for 12 dollars. I had no idea that it would be such a perfect fit for me.

Patriot1 

stringsonbikes

Riveting

Buying saddles online is a pain in the ass.

MikeyMK

It came as standard on an early '80s Raleigh Hercules 3-speed shopper bike. It's a naked expanded foam moulding, like a car steering wheel, black with wrinkle pattern, and is unbranded - it's the sort of saddle that'd have come standard on a low-end '80s mountain bike. It'd probably sell today for around £5 new, if only it was still made.

I don't currently use it because it doesn't use rails, it's candlestick fitting only, but i've been meaning to fabricate an adaptor at work (priorities include shortening a Quattrefoil frame and converting it to LTS, atm). I must've had 100 saddles in my time, i seem to get on best with Selle Royal.

Paul Barnard

ISM PR 3.0 is what I arrived at after quite a bit of trial and error. If you liked the Toupe, you could probably go with one of the ISM race saddles. Find an ISM dealer and they will let you demo as many as you want for a nominal deposit, then when you find the one you like, they will apply the deposit toward the purchase price.

caloso

Luck mostly. My first "real" bike came with a Selle Italia Flite and it just fit. Over the years I kept buying them. Then a few years ago my team had a sponsorship deal with a Specialized shop. The Toupe that came on my Tarmac didn't work for me so I asked them for the Specialized saddle most like the old Flite, which is the Romin. Turns out the Romin is even more comfortable. It's a little finicky to set up, but once you're dialed in, it just disappears.

Metieval

trial and error with a bit of educated guesswork.

so many $15-20 saddles on line to try different shapes.

philbob57

For perineal pain or numbness, there are a number of saddles claiming to solve the problem, and I'm sure they work for some people. I started in 1982 with an Avocet Touring, Broks Imperial in 2014, ISM Adamo in 2016, and Selle SMP also in 2016. That solved my problem, and I stopped looking. If Selle SMP had not worked, I was going to check out - but I hadn't decided the order of tryout - Rido, Selle Anatomica, Kontact, Cobb, Brooks Cambium.... Rido probably would have been first because they were lowest priced by far, IIRC.

No matter what, it's trial and trial again until you find the solution, and the solution may be temporary.

big chainring

Brooks Pro rider for 45 years. I like the 70's version with the open nose. I still find them in nearly new condition.

rollagain

I bypassed all the trial-and-error and, based on a great many recommendations, got a Brooks B67 for my upright Simcoe. For a while I was beginning to wonder if I'd made an expensive mistake, but the Simcoe came with a micro-adjust seatpost, and I managed to find just the right amount of nose-up angle. Now it feels like I could ride it all day and it's far from being broken in yet.

Machka 

How did you find the "one" saddle?
By trying many and noting what worked and what didn't.

Gresp15C

It sounds kinda flippant to say that I found it in a bin at a thrift store for 3 bucks, but in fact, a bin full of random saddles isn't a half bad way to try a few different sizes and types. It's an ancient Avocet leather "touring" saddle that I needed to glue the hide back onto. Having tried out a few saddles, I think that I could probably make a pretty good educated guess on a new saddle.

I was also given what I think is a women's Velo saddle, and it works great too.

I've also messed around a lot with seat angle and height.

MarcusT

I guess a pro seat fitter would be the answer, but finding one and hoping the $200 saddle fits. I lucked out. I bought the Brooks B17 and it was comfortable right out of the box. I tried a number of low-mid range "comfort" saddles and all were painful after an hour of riding.

TrojanHorse

Really? Visually, the flite looks flat like a toupe, not scoopy liike a romin. And I *hated* the toupe.

I also have a Romin evo and then for a few years I cheated on it with a selle italia (which I still like) but I'm back to preferring the romin as my favorite all day saddle.

You just need to try some out. Some saddles you'll hate after 30 seconds, some will be good for 20-30 miles and some will be good for longer, but only you can figure that out, unfortunately.

Metieval

wait until you find your saddle, and then change bike short brands!

rgconner

Just like I found my wife, the last one I rode...

wait, that did not come out right.

Slightspeed

I have an '07 Roubaix Elite with the standard Avatar saddle. After 11 years it's in perfect condition, but is starting to bug me. My two vintage bikes, which I ride a lot, both have newish Brooks B17s. I really like the feel of these, but a B17 might be a little too vintage for my carbon Roubaix. I'm thinking of a Brooks Cambium C17, for a more modern look, but with the Brooks comfort and feel, but never tried one. Anybody able to compare leather and cambium Brooks B or C17?

mstateglfr 

I have both. 2 of each.

the c17 is great and I don't think about it while riding, much like the b17.
c17 is technically narrower, but the effective width was designed to be the same per Brooks.

caloso

Doctor Morbius

I still haven't found "the one." I have a couple that are good for about an hour's worth or riding and that's as good as it gets. That's OK by me though as I get bored riding much longer than that so it works out.

50PlusCycling

More than 30 years of serious riding, and more than a dozen different kind of saddles, and I finally settled on a Brooks B17.

When I was young, Brooks were what the bike touring crowd used, it was the standard saddle of the day. I thought they were too low-tech, and not Italian enough, so I avoided them. Years later, when I finally got around to buying a Brooks, and breaking it in, I could see why they were so popular.

So far, the B17 is the only road bike saddle which I can do fairly long rides without needing bike shorts. I imagine that today, in the age of carbon fiber, electronic shifting, and GPS navigation that modern riders would be even more averse to riding a Brooks than I was as a kid in the early 80's. Modern saddles are as sexy and high-tech as the bikes they come on, but they are not as comfortable as old-school seats unless you are wearing shorts which cost at least as much as the saddle.

All of my bikes are now fitted with Brooks saddles.

Kovkov

Can confirm that. And add the flyer.