Fluteman

For touring...Leather, padded or plastic?

john_mct

Charge spoon... faux leather, firmly padded, fits my bum and my wallet

jmeb

One that fits (which means minimal necessary padding) and is durable. Nothing else matters.

noglider 

Brooks B17.

Piratebike

B17. For everything but my road bike and MTB.

jkrjhn

I love my ism road saddle. I have ridden over 100 miles several times with no numbness or sores. I've had it for over ten years and still loving it.

Snuts

For touring, leather.



-Snuts-

johnnyace 

Leather, this one:

https://selleanatomica.com/collectio...es/products/x1

martianone

A leather saddle, appropriate for bike style, fits and is well broken in.

DonTx

B17

Tourist in MSN

Brooks Pro or Brooks Conquest for touring or rando.

Brooks Flyer for mountain biking.

Brooks B17 on bike on indoor trainer.

Errand bike, some plastic thing that I am not sure what it is.

gracehowler

As a warm showers host on the Western express, 8 out of ten cross country tourists we host have B-17!
R

niknak

The Selle Anatomica is the best I've used so far. It has its quirks but keeps me happy about 90% of the time, which is far better than anything else.

Machka 

Brooks B17

DropBarFan

Experimented expensively with 3 different Brooks incl B17 that didn't fit & various plastic saddles that hurt after 2 hours.

SQ Labs 610 Active Trekking is first saddle I've tried that isn't painful on all-day rides. SQ Labs emphasizes ergonomics vs traditional styling:

3 different widths, flat rear sit part, scoop for soft tissue & lowered narrow nose for free pedaling & minimal pressure on naughty bits. Sit part has little elastomer bits (includes 3 different pairs of varying stiffness) between outer rear edges & rails. Rear sit part has enough padding for sitting semi-upright but front part is comfy for riding crouched on drops.

MarcusT

I hate to go with the flow, but after getting a B-17, I was hooked. 8-10 hrs of riding without the the usual pain that comes with 4 other saddles I've tried.

elcruxio

I honestly like the concept of this saddle. It really does eliminate numbness pretty much completely. I got one amidst saddle woes on my last tour and rode a couple thousand km's with it. However I just couldn't make it work. As per SQ-Lab's own words, I suspect it is too soft as after 50km, like clockwork my bum would start killing me. Absolutely nothing before that, the first 50km's was always a breeze but immediately when we hit 50, a dull pain would start at the sitbones. I may give it a revisit on my MTB but I think I need another type of saddle concept on my tourer as I've found that to be balanced on a road bike I need to lean forwards quite a bit using my Ischial Rami as support. Since SQ-Lab is based almost completely on the Ischial tuberosities I can't get balanced with one.

Also setting the saddle height by feel is actually quite challenging with the saddle having the side to side sway. You don't feel the hip movement as one would with a rigid saddle so one easily ends up with a too high a saddle. One more reason to bring a tape measurer on the next tour.

staehpj1

I am not too fussy about saddles. The ones that came on my bikes were all good enough that I'd be happy to ride coast to coast on them. I did find that they all took time for me to adjust to them. The ones that I have liked the best and required the least getting used to were from the WTB Volt line.

As far as Brooks saddles, I really didn't like the one I had (B17). It was the one saddle I tried that after starting out ok just got worse and worse as it broke in. By the time it was fully broken in I hated it.

andrewclaus

My one B-17 experience didn't end all that well, either. Best saddles I've toured on have been leather over a very slight padding on a plastic base. The Sella Italia is a good one. I miss the old Avocet Touring II.

jefnvk

And I liked the one that came with my Miyata so much I sourced a second, and will be on the lookout for more at the C&V bike show this weekend

bikemig 

Before you jump on the B 17 bandwagon or any other bandwagon, this story on Kent's Bike Blog but that originally came from Lon Haldeman is worth reading:

https://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2009/03/wtb-saddles.html

Here is the quote:

"Lon Haldeman told me a story once that illustrates something interesting about the world of bike saddles. Lon is an ultra-distance legend and he runs these hundred-plus miles-per-day events called PAC Tours. At those kind of miles, PAC Tour riders have every kind of saddle issue and Lon's support van has a bin of saddles for folks to swap out. "Every trip," Lon told me, "somebody is cursing out their saddle and we swap it out with one from the bin. And on every trip, we end with someone praising the saddle we gave them out of that bin. And, you know, every saddle in that bin, every saddle that literally saved somebody's butt, is one that we took off of somebody else's bike when they were cursing it!"

I like the WTB saddles which the blog talks about. I tried many moons ago to love a B17 and sold it. But it's spring and that's usu. time to try something dumb, so I bought another B17. We'll see how that goes.

noglider 

That says a lot! You have a decent sample size of riders, and all of them do a lot of miles, I'm sure.

I see the B17 more often now than I used to, and I see lots of bikes every day here in NYC. It's my favorite by far, and I've sampled lots of saddles.

Even though the price is high, it ends up being a good value because it lasts so long, sometimes more than 40 years. To prolong its life, don't let it get soaked with water too often, though it can tolerate a few occasional soakings.

alias5000

Also very decent and very affordable: Planet Bike A.R.S. Standard. In Canada now also sold as MEC Standard Saddle for about 35$Cdn. I love this saddle.
But: haven't had a chance to test it for long long touring, yet.

Dark Arrow

Brooks B67 for my touring bike

badger_biker 

My experience didn't deteriorate to "hate" but it did get worse as it broke in and sagged. I laced it up and it is much better now.

My top saddle is the B17-N. The leather seems thicker than the standard B17. It has enough flex to be extremely comfortable for long rides but thick enough to not develop the sag. Then again the narrower saddles tend to be a better fit for me.