Which Non-Brooks (or other stretched leather) Saddle
 

I have done a good bit of searching and reading here on the forum. The vast majority of you use Brooks or other stretched leather saddles. I'll spare you the details as to why Brooks don't work for me. What other saddles are you using for your touring or distance rides?

Well, you can't spare us all the details. Because I think there are a few of us who use Brooks, but don't use stretched leather saddles (the Cambium line). So you might at least need to clarify whether it's Brooks you want avoid, leather you want to avoid, or both.

If you're asking for saddle recommendations, why would you spare us the details of what doesn't work for you in a saddle?

There are many .
One popular brand is Selle Anatomica .

https://selleanatomica.com

another is Rivet Cycle Works .

Rivet Cycle Works

I may have mixed up my terminology. What I want to know is who is using what seats other than the leather ones like Brooks and Selle and the Rivet above. They don't work for me.

Well then you might as well ask what's the best color. Because any saddle recommendation thread gets almost as many different suggestions as it does replies.

So I'm to understand that you've tried Brooks, Selle Anatomica, and Rivet, and couldn't find an acceptable saddle? Might be something wrong with your aft section. Over 15,000 miles on SA over here.

Here's an idea. How about if I ask the questions I want the answer to, and if you don't have a meaningful response just don't post? Crazy, I know.

It's your party, I suppose. But the odds are extremely high that you're going to gain nothing from this thread. You've been on the site for awhile, shame you never paid any attention. The "recommend me a saddle" threads come up quarterly, and they do not break new ground. Saddles are personal things. The grail saddle for one guy is the ass hatchet of another. So welcome to the internet-- don't be alarmed when you don't get the answer you want.

I understand that saddles are very personal. I have read a number of the saddle threads. I just spent quite a while researching here and elsewhere for information on touring saddles specifically. I figured that with the generally more upright position of touring bikes, that the comments on road bike saddles may not translate well to touring bike saddles. In doing my research, the overwhelming majority of tourers like the leather saddles that just do not mesh with me. So that's why I thought I'd ask about non-leather touring saddles. I might learn about something out there that I had never heard of or never considered. My favorite saddles to date are ISMs more comfort oriented saddles (Typhoon, PR 3.0 and Century) I do pretty well with them. I rode RAGBRAI on one, but squirmed a bit. I looked at ISMs Metro saddle and thought for the price it might be worth a try for my new touring rig. They are fairly new though and there's not much info out there on them. Who knows, maybe someone here has tried one. I have rarely asked questions on any of the forums here and not gotten useful info. It truly never hurts to ask.

I looked at those Terry Touring saddles a while back and had kinda let them slip my mind. They have padding which I like and a large channel which I like. Which model do you have? What saddles did you try prior to the Terry? My wife was struggling to get comfy on our tandem until I put her in a Terry.

Ergon ST Core Touring Series
http://www.ergon-bike.com/en/product...tcore-44040000

Rode Brooks Professional and B17 for years on my touring bike. Just this year I changed to the Sella Italia Turbo saddle as I have had one on my daily rider since 1986. Not sure what changed, but anything over 140mm kills me now. Not sure what changed. I can do 60 miles without much issue on it.

Every butt is different. Perhaps that is why dogs and guys spend so much time looking at them checking out the differences.

Besides the Brooks I like the old Avocet Touring models. Perhaps my favorite saddle is on one of my commuting bikes and is a second-hand, no-name (or as far as I could find; I wish I could) saddle. Although I really haven't ridden that past ~20miles in a day but my butt still feels fresh after.

I'm another Terry fan. BUt I don't "recommend" them or any other seat. Our butts vary just as much as our faces. (No, I haven;t looked, but I have been noticing for more than a half century what seats others prefer. When I rode a very hilly near century with a rider who swore by his new Brooks Pro and who could not understand why anyone would want the narrow Selle Italia I was riding, well let's just say I had my eyes opened.

My advice - find a shop where you can return saddles after riding them long enough to know until you you find the saddle that your butt says "that one!". More and more, good shops are putting in place policies so you can do that. If you shop won't suggest to them they go on-line to the Gladys Bikes site. That shop issues "library cards" for $25 that let you take out any of the 2 dozen saddles in their library, ride it for two weeks. then either just return it, take out another or by that or another and get the $25 back. (The seat you buy will be new, in the box, not the library's.)

Until you ride a saddle, all we can offer is just words, worth exactly what you are paying us.

Ben

Folks I am very well aware that saddle and short comfort is absolutely subjective. With that said, the shorts and the ISM saddles I use now, I use because someone on these forums used them and told their story here. And that is what this thread is all about. I wish I had a cycle shop around here that carried comfort/touring oriented saddles that I could put my hands on or demo, but such shops don't exist.

Ben, are you using one of these?

Search Results

Berthoud saddles has its connoisseur - fans.. Gilles Berthoud - Selles

Gilles Berthoud Saddles

https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/bersaddles.php

I just bought a Brooks B17. Not because I needed it, but mostly for the romance of the leather saddle. I'm not impressed. Now before anyone jumps in to turn this into a "Brooks vs Whatever" thread... stop. Please. I'm going to keep the Brooks, even though the thing is slippery as hell, and I don't know if there's a seatpost made that'll get it back far enough for me. But it is comfortable enough and maybe I'll find something to put it on someday.

My All-Time Favorite saddle is the Specialized Phenom -- it's like they used my ass to shape it. I highly recommend you investigate Specialized's Body Geometry saddle designs, there is something for just about everyone. You want flat? They got flat (Toupe) You want curved? They got curved (Romin) Wide? (Power) Padded? (Avatar) etc. They all feature a cutout, some of them pretty large. No, they're not cheap, but they're well built and my one warranty claim was handled quickly and painlessly (cover pulled away from an edge).

Best saddles not made of leather (IMHO).


-Kedosto

I would say that the details as to why Brooks, and other stretched saddles, would be helpful in suggesting an alternative. Good luck on your search. I'm sure there is something out there for you.

Prior to my ISM saddles Specialized BG Sonoma saddles were the best ones I had found.

This one looks pretty good to me, but at $180 it's a bit scary to give it a whirl.

Specialized Sitero Expert Gel

https://www.specialized.com/us/en/si...=220594-131027

That turned out to be pretty profound, huh? 😉
I dunno what it is about Brooks-type saddles, that doesn't work for you, but maybe you should try a "framed" leather saddle, more like the old Cinellis. I had one with nice thick leather, that was soft as anything, and breathed well. If I develop an aversion to Brooks, that's my backup plan. 🙂 Good luck.

Aside from the Brooks that I use, I also have a cheap rebranded Velo trekking saddle that I bought about 4 years ago for about $10. I found myself even riding it for up to 30 miles in normal pants or shorts and boxers without any trouble. On that heavy city bike, I have the flat handlebars about 1" or so above the saddle and the saddle is very flat front-to-back. Although it has a cutout, I like that it's relatively flat across the sitbones, and it's narrow enough forward of that position that my legs move freely without rubbing the sides of the saddle. Sometimes with saddles that are more rounded near the sitbones, I find that it feels like saddle almost spreads them apart, which very quickly leads to pain for me. It also doesn't hurt that it's cheap and I'm less worried about a surprise rain storm than with my nicer saddles.

You need to realize that especially the traditional shaped leather saddles aren't really that anatomical. A lot of them either have a pronounced T-shape (which only really generally works for women) or lack support at the sides where the pubic rami would contact the saddle.
So essentially a brooks b-17 for example only works for people who have either very shallow angled pubic rami or people with very narrow sitbones. If you have steep angled pubic rami and have wide sitbones there's no real chance a brooks or any other leather saddle will work properly.

Selle Anatomica are getting there, but they also have a narrow effective width essentially precluding them from everyone with wide sitbones. They're 165mm wide so if you take a sitbone measurement and add 4cm from center to center measurement you get the width you'd need for a suspended leather saddle so that the steel rails will not contact the outsides of your sitbones. So for a selle anatomica the maximum sitbone width center to center would be 125mm. However that's pushing it so honestly a person with 115mm wide sitbones could probably sit on a selle anatomica without issues.

There's nothing wrong in a person if their sitbones are wide. Generally sitbones can go up to 150mm or more.