Question for the ladies (or guys who have suggestions) -- Saddles
 

Ladies--

I am looking to purchase a new saddle. Right now I am riding on the hideous one that comes stock on a Pista. It isn't THAT uncomfortable, but I have heard of people having problems with it falling apart after not riding on it very long. Aside from the fact that it isn't so attractive.

So my question for you, something that is comfortable for the female anatomy, and also something that is preferably under $100 or barely over that.

Thanks!

Any women's specific saddle will be miles more comfortable than the one you are on now. I have put a crapload of women on Terry saddles and have not had a single complaint yet.

Exactly how many women make up a crapload?

Two suggestions:

1. Is your Pista new? If so, then your LBS may do a trade-in for the current one.
I did this last year and got $25 trade-in after 200k for the purchase of a $135 saddle.

2. Some LBS have demo saddles that they will let you try before you buy. A friend of mine got a fizik to try for a week before he decided to keep it, at this stage the shop took the demo back and sold him a brand new one. Nice.

and would that be a metric crapload, or standard?

Yes. My Pista is new, within the past month or so. I will surely check that out to see if they will do that.

Definitely check if you can get a trade in.

Also, check the women's forum for suggestions, and also Team Estrogen has whole forums on this topic. If you don't have access to the women's forum on BF, page koffee.

I went through 15 saddles before finding the right one (Specialized Avatar 155). If you can, get your sit-bones measured at a Specialized dealer to help you narrow down your choices. That way you won't run around wasting your time/money with saddles that are obviously too narrow.

i believe the pc term now is an SI crapload not a metric crapload...fyi

Hella women.

if your willing to spend 100--go with a brooks b17--hands down--best bang for your buck and most comfortable

Chucksbikes.com has a Sella Italia C2 for $45 (I got it for $29 a couple weeks back).
Super comfortable.
Not "female" specific, but very nice.

go to yr lbs and try some out.
i ride the fizik vitesse on all my bikes.
i love it!

terry terry terry terry.. the cutout cuts-out the grinding of precious anatomy. it's great!

First,
the good news, there are a LOT of good saddles out there. The bad
news is that it can take a while to find one. A good LBS will help, letting you return the butt killers.
My wife rides a Brooks Finesse. I think it's the nicest gal saddle made. Sis rides a WTB Speed She Ti. She likes it. Lots of gals like the Terry Butterlfy. But it comes to down to what works for you.
PS, all the saddles I've mentioned have Ti rails, that's not an accident.

I ride 8 - 10 hours a day on a red Brooks Swift Ti rail saddle, and other than it destroying my pants, it is awesome. Not that anything is really _comfortable_ when ones rides that much, but it seems to hurt less than anything else I've tried.

+1

Cutouts are key.

Thank you all for your great suggestions! Now the only task is to save up the money and test drive some saddles. Thanks for pointing out that I should go for something with cutouts. I was never really sure whether I should go with something with or without them. I want to protect my precious cargo!