Lets talk saddles!
 

Hi All,

So next summer I have plans to embark upon my first tour. I will start in Spokane Washington and tour through the pan handle of Idaho, then through Montana, crossing through Wyoming and into Colorado. From there back to Washington via?

My question is, what are your preferences regarding touring saddles? I have been looking at the Brooks B17, but I thought that I would look for a bit of input before I committed to something that I may not enjoy for the long haul.

Thanks in advance!

Gary

I like my B-17. Most people do, but there are some folks that it just doesn't work for.

Mine was comfortable right out of the box, once I adjusted the nose to tilt up ever so slightly. As I have added miles, it is more comfortable, and great for long rides.

Try one. If it doesn't feel right, return it and try a Selle Anatomica or Terry Liberator or any of the others people recommend here. You're going to spend a lot of time in close contact with it, so it pays to make sure you like it.

Get the saddle now, put some miles on it and break it in before you tour. You don't want to start a tour on a new saddle.

I'd strongly agree with the last sentence of the second post. My B17 was fairly comfortable on rides up to about 20 miles, but started to get uncomfortable at the 30 mile point. On my first 55 mile ride, my butt hurt so bad by the 40 mile point I had to dismount every three miles on the last 15 to give my butt a rest. Overall I rode it about 400 miles before I decided it just wasn't for me. I put a cheapo Diamondback saddle on next and that seems to have done the trick.

Keith

If you look at the upper right hand corner of the screen there is "Advanced search", type in Brooks Saddles and you will find everything and more than you want to know about Brooks saddles. You will find that opinions range from those who think they are the best things on the face of this earth to those who consider them a violation of the international treaties against torture.

As for me, I like mine. However in the immortal words of Johnnie Cochran, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit."

Its between your butt and the saddle under it .. too many saddle threads already .. go fish .

I ride a Brooks Pro and have done rides up to 70 miles with no padded shorts. It's all about your anatomy. As above, there are tons of threads on this. You just gotta pick a starting point and go. Good luck!

There is some online retailer that sells Brooks with a money back guarantee...possibly a few months? I would avail myself of that and be sure to get it early enough to break it in and learn if you fall into the OMG FaNTAstiC ! crowd or the WTF are people on crack? crowd. Absolutely no way to know before trying it out. If it fails you could also try the Selle Anatomic but I've not seen anyplace that sells them with a money back guarantee so I think they're a bit more of a gamble.

One such retailer is Wallingford Bicycle Parts, aka wallbike, who has "a six-month unconditional guarantee on all new Brooks saddles". I don't personally have any experience with this retailer but many on these forums have mentioned wallbike has good service.

I have a Brooks Flyer. It's the B17 plus springs. I am 1000 miles in and it's fairly comfortable for me now but the first couple of hundred miles were not and it probably took 500 miles to compltely break in (others experience immediate comfort with no break in). The springs even though they are stiff make a big difference not just with the bigger bumps but the road buzz as well. At first I was put off by the idea of springs but I actually have come to like the look. My only complaint about the Flyer is it's slippery and I find myself have to push myself back a lot. It's also quite heavy but a small price to pay for comfort.

Brooks B17 all the way! :)


But yes ... experiment with saddles now. Get comfortable on something now. Don't leave it to the last minute.

I will be the odd man out I guess. I have a Phorm s/410 on my touring bike and i have had great success whether a 20 miler or a 60 miler. I also have close to 800 miles on it. I've put it on and never thought twice about it. This was the first time i paused to think about what type i have when i read the thread.

Was that you around Falls Church? If so, sorry I couldn't stop. I had to get east of Clearfield that day.

OP: I like the Terry Men's Liberator Gel.

What are you using now? Is there a problem with it? If not just keep using it.

I prefer road racing style saddles myself, but have found that I can pretty easily adapt to most saddles. I would not hesitate to go coast to coast on any of the saddles that came with any of my bikes. If I had to pick a favorite it would probably be the Prologo Kappa.

Time in the saddle is more important than saddle choice in my experience. I find that given time the rider breaks in to the saddle more than the other way around.

I am probably not typical in this but... The only saddle that I have owned that I really didn't like was a B17 and it was OK at first, but went downhill as it broke in.

Yea, Falls Creek. My dreamy lil town of 900 and that includes our Township. But yea, that was me. The bicycle route that you were following, was it Pa "v". It takes you straight through the worst traffic. Very strange route. There was a slightly faster way and more straight shooting way to get to clearfield also. If you ever pass back through, i can give you some advice on different routes. Hope you had a good tour!

Walter

For return shipping We box up bikes, that have done the Transamerica & Louis and Clark routes . peoples saddle choices are many ..

leather saddles are 100 years old.. They waned in sales , then became trendy again , recently ..

Find what works for you. All you can do on the internet is get ideas. You can't find out which saddle is "best". For me B17 is not it. Selle Anatomica is the best I've tried. I hardly know it's there for the first five hours. Without a long break (hour+) it will give me some uncomfortable pressure on my vein after that time. Not too bad but something that creeps into my awareness every little while. Still, no pain, no sores, etc. I've ridden on some saddles where it hurts before you get on! (because it hasn't been long enough since...).

I've also yet to find a saddle that absolves me of all responsibility in managing my butt properly. Move around in the seat, get up off the seat every few minutes, a 30 minute break sometime is valuable, pivot your lower back some, keep your junk out from under you. That might make a bad saddle tolerable or make an OK saddle into a pretty good one. (not to presume you don't know what you're doing - just sayin)

I love my Gilles Berthoud Aravis (titanium-framed touring version), and prefer it over the well-broken-in B-17 on another bike. It requires less nose up tilt than the Brooks so it's less likely to cause perineal pressure (none for me with the GB; my B-17 is now slotted to prevent that problem). The leather is thicker than any Brooks in my experience, and consequently takes longer (about 500 miles) to break in, but it was never uncomfortable in that time. It has the same short rails as Brooks. Yes, GB saddles are expensive, and yes, it was worth it to me. I'd buy another one in a flash, but maybe the steel-framed Aspin version for a bike that I'm not riding as much.

Wallbikes and Rene Herse both have 6-month money back guarantees on their Brooks and Gilles Berthoud saddles. Harris and others also sell them.

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I've had a Selle An-Atomica Titanico X, and it was nice under the sitbones, but I didn't care for the thigh chafing on one side due to the shape. That's not a universal complaint, but others have also had the problem. It was surprised how much adjustment was required in 500 miles of use. The GB has needed no adjustment in 2500 miles, and the Brooks very little in more than twice that mileage, even with the slotting that SAA performed about 8 years ago. OTOH, the long SAA rails make it more likely to be adjustable to the preferred fore-aft position. I use Velo Orange's long setback seat post with the GB for that reason.

My preference is for a leather saddle. Some riders feel a leather saddle is more like a mid evil torture device, others suggest it is what God rides on. Depends upon you and your bike's geometry - sometimes a leather saddle takes a little more time to tweak to perfection. Currently ride on a Brooks, GB and SA saddles - all are comfortable on their mounts.