The seat has less than a hundred miles on it and it still feels rock-hard. Like by Brooks B17, will breaking in the Soulor still take a few hundred miles (800 miles perhaps)???

HTFU , you bought a premium Leather saddle, accept it will take break in time .. and your butt may be used to soft saddles ..

Someone else reviewed them Gilles Berthoud ?Racing? Saddles
I G'd to know its a different model .. Shape more Brooks Pro than B17..

My 30 year old Brooks Pro . one never would consider soft.. just shaped a bit by the the Pelvis' sit bones ..

Cannot speak to the Soulor, have an Aravis on my road bike. Broke in much more quickly than a Brooks champion flyer. The Aravis is, for me, a very comfortable saddle.

My butt is ussed to a B17, the only leather saddle that I've known other than the Ideale from way back in the early '70s. Interesting article at the url you posted, using mink oil.

I used the Brooks stuff ... Mink oil promotes stretching , but its your $200+ bucks you spent ..

You will find that it helps to relax the tension somewhat by using the tensioning bolt. This creates a bit more "give" in the saddle but do remember that this will not break-in the same as a Brooks. The leather is too thick to form those dimples so this saddle works on the "hammock" principle.

Amazing how just repositioning the forward/backward and tilt adjustment a little bit can make so much improvement in the comfort level. Moving the seat forward made all the difference and really relieved the pressure and discomfort from my "private" area.

My GB Aravis took about 500 miles to break in. It was pretty good at the beginning then just kept getting better. At 2700 miles, I can't imagine a more comfortable saddle. I used the GB-specified treatment when it was new, and now need to re-apply a year later. There's a thread about leather saddles with pictures including mine new and now, over at C&V:

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...er-saddle.html

I tweaked saddle tilt pretty often during that first 500 miles, and slightly adjusted tension (1/4 turn). Nothing since then. I have very long legs and find that my saddles need to pretty far back.