so someone stole my bike saddle, and i have to replace it. i don't know anything about saddles and i have some annoying financial restrictions. i'm down to a choice between something that appears to be the fizik aliante, which my local bike shop can get for me, or the terry butterfly, which i could order by mail sight unseen. the fizik to my untrained hands feels sort of hard. the butterfly reviews seem subjective and i've never had a ladies saddle so i'm uncertain whether i'll like it. i have a no-suspension mountain bike that i ride around town about 15 km/day at the most but sometimes go 80 km on weekends and 30-40 km a day in the summer. my old saddle came with the bike, and was possibly a san marco? but probably a cheap one.

advice? please?

Many people will tell you a saddle has to be hard to be good. They will give you some kind of nonsense about sit bones etc. etc.

I think a choice of saddles is very subjective. Some might not be able to stand a soft saddle, while others can't stand to ride more than a few miles on a hard saddle.

I own a Nashbar brand saddle which is actually a Velo saddle. It is a gel saddle and I can easily do 80 miles with no problems what so ever. I really like the saddle but for my next saddle, I am going to look at the Specialized ergonomic saddle. I have heard very good things about this saddle.


P.S. Please use capital letters at the beginning of sentences. No caps makes text very hard to read.

Keflex, the first thing you need to do is measure your sitbone span. Once you know that, you'll know which saddles are too narrow for you. It might help you make your decision more easily.

I agree with spinnaker about saddle choice being subjective. Perhaps no other component is as thoroughly discussed...or, disgust, as the case may be.

However, I respectfully disagree with the sitbone width issue being described as nonsense. I think it's absolutely critical to understanding a most important aspect of the interface between you and the whole experience. For one thing, if you know what your ischial width is, you can go directly to saddles that may fit you - Brooks or not. I had no idea when I started riding. So, I accumulated a ton of saddles that aren't worth diddly squat - although they represent a lot of hard earned cash spent.

Now, some of this has benefitted me, who has scrounged really good bikes from yard sales for $25 just because the owner says, "I stopped riding because my butt hurt."

I never meant to say that the width is nonsense. What I meant was that the claim that you must sit on your sit bones to have comfort is nonsense. Certainly sit bone width is important, if your choice is a hard saddle. And probably somewhat important to find the sweet spot in a gel saddle.

I have 2 Terry saddles. They're very comfortable. They're not as huge as many women's saddles that I've seen. I think they work really well and they look nice.