Another saddle-suggestion thread.

[Owlie]

I have finally gotten round to properly measuring my sitbones using the playdoh method. I've come up with:
Outer: ~160mm--I couldn't get a clean set of butt-prints for the outer edges
Center-to-center: 130mm (between the centers of each marble)
Inner: 75-80mm
Other criteria:
Shape: Currently using a SI Lady Gel Flow, which is rather too pear-shaped for my liking. Need a T-shaped saddle.
Padding: Not too much padding, obviously, but I need some.
Cutout: Necessary.

TE ladies, work your magic! I've got the old Jett on my list (I believe the LBS still has one of each in stock), not sure about the new one.

[ny biker]

The Bontrager Affinity doesn't have a cutout, but it does have a pretty deep indentation in the nose. Comes in 3 levels of padding, with the hardest being the RXL. Also comes in 3 widths -- 134, 144 and 154 mm. And there is a 30-day comfort guarantee.

http://bontrager.com/model/08798

[Becky]

The Selle Italia SLR Lady Gel Flow is rather similar in shape to the Jett and Ruby. It's also less padded than the Lady Gel Flow, which was a good thing for me.

I'd like to find something even more T-shaped than the SLR LGF or the Ruby, but I'm not sure what that is.....

[Owlie]

So I have a quick question that I haven't found a definitive answer for:

While obviously the width of the saddle should be somewhat greater than the center-to-center sitbone width, should a (non-Brooks) saddle be somewhat wider than the outer sitbone width? I ask because what I measure as my outer sit-bone width seems to be greater than most of the commonly available saddles.

[Owlie]

It makes sense that it's a hard dimension to get good measurements for. Even with the play-dough method, i didn't get clean prints. I've been getting anywhere between 155 and 170. Split the difference...somewhere in the 163 range.

It makes sense that I should probably go for the slightly wider saddle. I know it's quite individual, but it makes sense. Muirenn, didn't you have a 143 Spec saddle at one point? What made you switch? (Or am I completely making things up?)

[OakLeaf]

I'm a bit narrower, but only a bit. Roughly 152 o-o, 115 c-c, 75 i-i. Mainly I think a lot of it is related to shape, and the measurement is only a starting point.

I was apprehensive when I pulled the Turbomatic out of the package, because even though it's nominally 153 mm wide, it's steeply crowned, unlike the Jett which is pretty flat across the top. On the Turbomatic, there's barely 75 mm between the highest spots on the back. But it works for me. It could be that the steep crown creates an effectively more T-shaped saddle - I definitely don't have to scoot myself back on this one nearly as often as I did on the Jett, to get my sitbones where they're supposed to be.

Still, I don't think I could ride a 143 Jett.

[Owlie]

I had a 143 Toupe The darned thing was too narrow. My sits were too close to the saddle's edges, which caused unnecessary 'hard' centralized pressure in the sitting area. The 155 is perfect.

I can't imagine why Specialized claims 143 is okay for c to c of 125. The 155 makes a huge difference.

Like everything in bikeland, it probably works for some people, probably a more aggressive bike than what either of us are riding.

I picked up a white Jett 143 on massive clearance from the LBS. (They didn't have anything else in the Jett. ) I'm going to take it on a short little trainer ride. (Eye doctor trip...I look like a cartoon right now and I'm not entirely sure I can focus properly.) If it works, I'm going to see if I can hunt down black, because it looks silly otherwise. If not, I'm PMing Oak!

[Realgone]

I had a 143 Toupe The darned thing was too narrow. My sits were too close to the saddle's edges, which caused unnecessary 'hard' centralized pressure in the sitting area. The 155 is perfect.

I can't imagine why Specialized claims 143 is okay for c to c of 125. The 155 makes a huge difference.

I am not an expert on sit bone measurements and am struggling to find a saddle that does nor absolutely kill me on my new bike, but I think Specialized actually does recommend a 155 and not a 143 based on this very helpful link. The next saddle I try will be a Specialized 155, not sure which one yet, Jett, Ruby, Ariel, but my previous bike was a Specialized and the saddle is great on that one. I am oprimistic that a 155 Specialized will be a perfect fit. Here is the link http://www.specialized.com/specs/spe...eometrysaddles

[Sky King]

Everyone has inspired me to measure my sit bones, I did the flour method and then also legs over head and backed it up with a squat measurement and I have pretty narrow sit bones. 75 mm center to center. Now I understand why the gilles berthoud I have been on for just over a year isn't as comfortable as my old fizik's vitesse sport (154 mm x 265 mm) The Gilles is 160 mm by 265 mm but is about 20 mm wider where my sit bones land than on the Vitesse Sport. In other words the gilles has a shorter nose and a wider platform whereas the Vitesse stays narrower and gradually widens in the platform.

With that said, I just spend some time on the fizik's website, was pretty entertaining - they are now promoting a saddle based on the flexibility of your spine - I am a snake... I didn't see the vitesse sport but they have a vitesse tri saddle with similar dimensions.

I just went through our warehouse and looked at all the Brooks saddles, the gilles berthoud and the Zimbale saddles, don't have anything in stock that is as narrow and as short as my old fizik's so for now am going to put that back on my touring bike and do some more research. Will look at the ones you all are discussing!

[Owlie]

I took the Jett on a 26-mile ride today. Thing one: my butt is sore. Thing two: nothing else is. No chafing, save a little that was probably due to my being remiss in shaving (TMI much?). I have a little more arm and knee soreness than I'd expect, so I need to go adjust the tilt and move the saddle back a bit. (Getting the damn thing on was an exercise in frustration, so I put it where I had the SI.)

I don't know if the butt soreness is a good or a bad thing. It either means the saddle is somewhat too narrow, or it means what I've been sitting on while riding...wasn't my sit bones. (Okay, I knew that part...) Or both.

(Oak, I'm sorry it's taking me so long to reach a conclusion on this!)

[Owlie]

Took it out again today. I'm pretty sure it's the saddle change that's making my knee unhappy, so I'm going to have to go play with it again. Much less butt soreness than after mile 15 on Friday. My wrists and arms are much happier this time. I'm still finding myself shifting around a bit to give my sit bones a break. This thing is quite hard compared to the SI.

I'm still not sure how well the 143 works for me width-wise. I'm only getting soreness in my left sitbone, which is kind of odd, but I know I sat on the SI weirdly (even DBF pointed it out). I'm going to give it another couple test rides and see how well my sitbone copes.

[ny biker]

Make sure the saddle is pointing straight ahead. I had problems with pain on the right side only, and when I asked the my LBS fit guy about it he said it's usually caused by a saddle that is crooked. Sure enough, it was slightly off center.

[Owlie]

It looked straight when I put it on, but I'll double-check that, since I have to tweak stuff anyway. Part of me thinks that it's just because I sat so weirdly with my old saddle. Since most of my power seems to come from my right leg (hence the knee pain, I'll bet!), I think I was shifting far to the right on the saddle to spare my right leg the rather unpleasant chafing, so I either wasn't sitting on my left sitbone much, or I was sitting somewhere odd so it didn't get a lot of pressure put on it.
I'll make sure I check if it's on straight. I know I had a bit of a problem in that particular regard with the old saddle, mostly after the LBS I took it to fiddled with my seatpost...

Out of curiosity: How the heck does one put on/take off/adjust a saddle with no cut-out? Any adjustments I've made I've done through the cutout. DBF took off the one that came on my Giant, before I had any clue how to do anything remotely mechanical with my bike.