vwchad

After the stock saddle, I tried 3 different saddles, all Fizik, through the Fizik saddle program at my LBS. The Arione VS is what I ended up purchasing. The Antares VS was a close second for me. It was nice only having to buy one saddle in the end. It took me about 3 months to get to where I am with my saddle choice though. My LBS was great the whole time. Never any pressure to make up my mind. Heck, he even had me on brand new saddles if the one I wanted to try was already out with someone else. A good LBS should be willing to work with you. They know saddle choice isn't a cut and dry thing.

tagaproject6

Only 1.

Ultraslide

Flat or curved - Proper width - Amount of padding

Once these are aligned to taste and size, you'll find a great number of saddles will do. Took me 3 years to realize I like a flat saddle around 140 mm wide with just a bit of padding. Fizik Antares has been the winner for me. I've also come to realize many "saddle issues" are really just running the saddle way too high.

cplager

*cough cough cough* recumbent *cough cough cough*

LesterOfPuppets

Somewhere around 7, IIRC.

Finally settled on SDG Belair. Charge Spoon a close second, which I'm more apt to choose cuz they're cheaper $26 vs $40-ish.

Dan333SP

I wish that were true! I'm 6'3", 170, and I rode over 6,000 miles this year with a few races thrown in, and I still can't get comfortable. At the pro level, maybe they are so bruised on the sit bones that they just don't feel anything any more, but mine get so sore that I lose power trying to shift around and rest them, even with riding out of the saddle every 10 minutes or so and trying many brands of good bibs.

Dan333SP

Give me 15 years on that one, I'm still in my 20s

Carbonfiberboy 

Probably about 20. Physiology changes over the years. So maybe 10 saddles each change. For me it's true about the pain, but not about the chafing. I need a very certain shape or I get chafed on my inner thighs on rides over a century. I've had Performance Forte Classics on all my bikes for a few years now. 18 hours is the longest at one stretch, though.

Machka 

So ... have you tried Brooks yet? Looks like you've tried everything else but the best.

deep_sky

I tried a Brooks, and no amount of fidgeting could make that thing comfortable. It was already broken in (he said he had at least 10k miles on it) by the previous owner and after 400 miles or so I returned it to him (it was on one of his infrequently used bikes) as it was no worse or better than anything else. I ride the Anatomica Titanico now, and that is truly comfortable. There are other leather options besides Brooks.

bike4fun12

like everyone says, a saddle to one person may not great for another. in this case, the saddle has 10,000 miles from another rider. sure, it's broken in, but for his butt, not yours. I have loved the B17 from the get go and it has been getting better and better with each ride cause the saddle is slowly forming to my body. the body needs time to adjust to anything. like golfing for instance, a simple game in which you swing a club at a little ball. If you haven't played in a while (couple months) and go out and play a round, your body would be sore the next day. but, if you played consistently for a couple weeks, eventually the body would get used to it and no more soreness. bad example, I know.

FlatSix911

I was looking at the Koobi saddles online https://www.koobi.com/
Why do you feel they are deceptive? Just curious before I buy one.

Garfield Cat

You may be able to cut to the chase without going thru all that "prolonged demo process".

Here's what I did recently: https://www.selleitalia.com/se_it3/idmatch/

"With science and medicine now playing as big a role in saddle technology as performance and design, Selle Italia has embarked on a new fit system of their own creation. Called ID Match, the fit program relies on personal measurements taken at select Selle Italia dealers which then provides the consumer with a choice of six sub-categories of saddles to choose from.
Dr. Luca Bartoli has been working on and perfecting the ID match system for two years. "The idea was easy," he said, "but the solution was difficult to create." Besides the width of a riders' thigh, another key measurement used to consider the optimum saddle in the Selle Italia line is the amount of pelvic tilt when a rider is bent over."

I went through this ID Match and the guy doing the Match for me was Dr. Luca Bartoli.

Dan333SP

Only because it felt nice at first, but ultimately was a touch too narrow for me and made my soft tissue very sore. I believe the hardest little suspension pieces were in the saddle, maybe it'd have been better if it were fitted with the softer ones. In either case, it just wasn't for me. My mechanic is going to let me try his Fizik Kurve, it seems to have the "suspended" properties of a leather saddle with none of the weight, I almost hope I hate it because it's so expensive.

cplager

In all seriousness, ride whatever you find comfortable and like to ride.

For the record, I've seen pre-teens on recumbents, so you're clearly old enough (not to mention the weehoo trail-a-bike, so kids as young as 2).

(I'm just planting seeds...)

Machka 

So ... the problem is that your sitbones get sore? Any pain elsewhere?

mprelaw

I must have one of those "one size fits all" rear ends, because I've never experienced any discomfort from my saddles, even on centuries. OTOH, my wife went on the saddle safari and finally settled on a Selle women's model. I put her stock Bontrager ass hatchet on my rain/winter bike, and although I've never gone over 50 miles since doing it, no pain whatsoever.

This is why saddle questions are difficult to answer, because your ass has to make the interface with it. Not mine.

I should note that I'm thin and have very narrow hips.

surgeonstone

This, I actually agree with Machka, WTF?
Still nothing is better than the Brooks Professional.

bianchi10

I had so many problems finding a saddle that I felt fit me correctly. I didn't do a demo program. I bought a saddle and used it till I couldn't anymore. Luckily I have very good luck with selling items on CL. I would usually break even or lose only a couple bucks so it was never a big deal. I landed on the fizik arione for about a year and thought it was perfect till it wasn't. Went to a fizik tri2 which was essentially the same shape just a little softer which I liked but was a bit to narrow for me. Now in a specialized romin evo pro with carbon rails and I'm loving it.
In total I am on my 13th saddle. Had some really bad experiences on some and some weren't horrible just not comfortable. The Cobb saddle was the worst for me BUT was partially my fault that I bought it 1 week before a century ride. I literally had traces of blood on my chamois! Taking a shower after that ride was BRUTAL.

surgeonstone

Sounds like you went through the same evolutions that I did though my next to last saddle was the Romin. With this saddle I had unbearable pain under the sit bone within 5 minutes of starting. No amount of tweaking relieved it. At first the Romin seemed pretty darn good but as time and miles accrued, this pain just kept getting worse. In desperation I bought a rock hard brand new Brooks Professional and I kid you not, the pain was completely gone immediately. Within 500 miles the Brooks was far and above anything I had ever ridden. Never again will I ride anything save this saddle, comfort even with a century. BTW, unless you are Bradley Wiggins, does an extra 300 gms matter that much? We add more than that with every water bottle fill.

Dan333SP

My pain tends to be on my soft tissue "on the nose" when I'm hunched down in the drops and rotating my hips forward. I've tried cutouts, and I thought maybe the ISM saddles would help, but the width of the "prongs" ends up rubbing my inner thighs and hurting me more. I've been fitted and played with it every which way, I've tried concentrating on putting more weight on my hands, I've focused on the pedal stroke so I'm transferring as much weight into my legs as I can to relieve pressure, ect. When I'm riding upright and just pushing my sitbones in to their proper position on the saddle it's not so bad, but I'll be doing some longer (60+ mile) road races this coming spring and I want to be focused on my power and positioning, not my sore butt. I stopped by the LBS on my way home from my ride today and threw on a Prologo zero pas gel, in the ~2 miles between the shop and home it felt pretty good. The quest continues.

Dan333SP

As for the Brooks route, call me vain but I just can't force myself to put a leather saddle on a carbon racing bike. Yes, that's an image thing and it's an illegitimate reason, and could possibly solve all my problems, but I honestly don't think leather will help with the type of pain I'm encountering anyway. Maybe I'll try one on my commuting bike and see what everyone's talking about.

bobonker

1. Bontrager asshatchet (stock Madone saddle)
2. Forte Classic
3. Specialized Alias
4. Selle Italia Flite Gel Flow
5. Selle Italia SLR Gel Flow
6. Specialized Romin
7. Specialized Romin EVO
8. back to Specialized Romin
9. ISM Adamo Road
10. Selle SMP Forma
11. Selle SMP Dynamic

Currently riding #11 -- verdict pending.

Bob

surgeonstone

Yeah I tried that route which is why i probably spent 850 dollars for nothing,the cost of vanity can be high. Eventually I realized the saddle grew on me and now I prefer its polished leather and high polish copper rivets, which are quite lovely. Besides who sees it when I am riding and more importantly, who cares if the it looks different as long as it does its job.

MarkThailand

So far, I have had 3000 miles on my Fizik Alliante carbon braided saddle.

I had some sore issues in the beginning but I it was resolve after I used better bibs (Castelli Endurance bibs and Giordana FRC bibs), used chamois creme (Assos), and rode more.

I regularly ride 3-4 hours (100 km) on Saturday and Sundays consecutively without any soreness and occasionally ride 5-6-7 hours (170 km) without any major or lasting soreness.

I guess I have been lucky. But, my fitter would like to take this credit. He says that he has seen lots of people buy and change saddles to solve the saddle soreness issue without getting a good bike fit and thus continue to buy and change saddles because the root cause of the problem has not been solved - a bad bike fit.

Mark