I know this isn't fixie specific, but it seems like there's more vegans here than on the other subforums. But anyways, do you guys have any suggestions for affordable vegan saddles.

thats tough, most of the non-leather saddles are gels, unless you go with the old plastic BMX saddles, no fun.

anything Fizik.

[edit] almost anything fizik. a couple of the high end models have leather/suede trim [/edit]

cool.

I hear that fizik saddles are dipped in butter...

mmmmm butter....

for the win.

is that for the fred flintstone suicide-hub bike?

most selle san marco saddles are synthetic... but i guess it depends on your definition of "inexpensive".

A nice b-17. Buy it and it will last 20 years. How many plastic saddles will go to the dump during those 20 years? The cows are already dead. The saddle is made. Buy it and your butt will thank u.

uncanny reasoning, man! i'm buyin' you a vegan sandwich.

seriously, though:

fizik arione. super.

I'm vegan but I use an old used brooks saddle that another rider gave me. There's nothing wrong with used goods.

freegan!

my vote goes for no saddle at all. the trials dudes will love you.

i know fsa makes one that isn't terribly expensive, as said. san marco, a lot of the fiziks actually ARE leather...some of the colored ones aren't. I bought the pave thinking it was synthetic, but i don't know how accurate that is. wtb makes a couple decent ones for under $50, i used to have one that i picked up for 20 at the lbs, and it was nice. it's hard, just look around...me and two of my co-workers have the same problem.

I remember this topic coming up before. You might get a few other good suggestions if you search.

i agree with you on the longevity of a brooks.. but not sure about your logic.. the cow is dead.. you buy saddle.. so another cow must die to stock the shelf left empty by your purchase.. seen?

I get the vegan thing alright, but I don't get the I won't use cows so give me some plastic instead thing. How many animals are harmed and or killed by the petroleum industry each year. How is using plastic which does not bio degrade, and comes from petroleum better than using something from a renewable resource that does biodegrade. You don't want to buy a dead cow, OK, but how is plastic better than leather? I know in many cass non-animal, non-petroleum alternatives don't really exist. Most leather saddles are leather covered plastic anyway. Maybe the Fred Flintstone saddle is the only choice.

(god, we've been here many many times before, people. if you want to argue with me about this, please PM me.)

first, um, your first sentance provides evidence that you really don't "get" the vegan "thing." hey, i don't have a problem with people using second-hand leather, wool, etc., but that's the point: you do what you can. buying new animal products, in my mind, is hardly justified as "better" when there are so many used choices.

second, modern leather tanning processes are pretty environmentally harmful. so leather is not simply a "natural" choice.

look, i'm just saying that there are compromises to both. synthetics are not "better" than leather, but (modern-day, mass-prodused) leather is hardly "better" than synthetics.

Cows are the most inefficient animal to raise though, since they require so much feed/land/water... more than any other livestock I believe. If someone made a pigskin/ostrich/emu leather saddle, that'd be cool and more enviro friendly since they don't require the resources a cow does.

I have one leather saddle (Arione) and the rest are just cheap take-offs I got from the shop I work at, so you might try the local shops to see if any have a "take-off" bin of saddles. I've picked up some Fizik Pave's for around $20 in the past, and have a WTB-esque Specialized saddle I got for $10 thats pretty darn comfortable and vegan.

i agree with mattface.
*hijack*
to elaborate, i think it more important to (when you can) buy from
companies that have good or less-bad business and ecological ideals.
there's no way to get around purchasing bike parts that don't, through
manufacturing, harm the environment in some way.

Not intending to argue that cows are environmentally friendly, only that plastic is evil, and NOT the lesser of two evils. As for re-using, I don't care how environmentally friendly a new product might be, re-using is always better no matter how environmentally, or animal friendly a new product may be. 3 of my 4 bikes have saddles on them that are more than 17 years old. Not because I'm holier than though, but because I'm too cheap to buy a new saddle

yeah, that's basically what i just said.

So the solution is to buy a cow, raise it yourself, then kill it and use the hide for saddles, etc, and eat the meat?

OK big hijack now. When my grandfather was a child (during the depression) he lived on a collective farm. His duty was to care for the cows, and he had this favorite cow. He was into woodcarving as a boy, and I have this lamp that he carved that is an exact likeness of that cow's foot. The cow is long dead. He said it gave him pause to eat her, but the meat was wonderful. My granfather is also long dead, but a little bit of both of them lives on in that lamp which is now just 2 feet away from me as I type. </hijack>

In the interest of answering the question. If you go to nashbar and sort by price, there are several saddles at the bottom of the pricerange that although leather are also NOS. SO those cows have been dead and sitting in a warehouse for 15-20 years In the $20 range there are a few vinyl covered saddles to choose from that look alright.