Are cut-outs just hype?

[RoadRaven]

Def not a hype.

I get numb, sore or pinched without cut-outs after maybe 20-30 minutes.

The angle of the seat has to be right too. When we took the women's specific seat off my new bike, and put the brand I like on it, it took a couple of test rides before the angle was right to ensure minimal squishification!

[Mimosa]

Without cut-out and with just a thin layer of padding ... I like them firm

[KnottedYet]

Or no padding at all...
http://www.wallbike.com/b68.html

Perhaps if girly-bits aren't being smashed into padding, you don't need a cut-out to keep the padding away from them?

[sgtiger]

I tried almost a dozen saddles before I found one that worked for me. Personally, I found the ones with the cut-outs were the worst. I remember one particular ride on one of those that almost had me in tears thirty minutes into the ride. It was the worst ride home ever. I considering quitting the whole biking thing after that thinking there was no hope for me to find a saddle that fit, because it was a model that had come highly recommended by others. Then I a gave the Brooks B66 a try, which I was totally skeptical of because it had NO padding. But you know what, I loved it and love it still.

I'm not telling you that the one I chose will work for you. Your body geometry is different from mine and others. Also, the way you ride or where you sit in you saddle may be different too. That is why even the same rider may have different saddles on different types of bikes they own.

Try to find a LBS that will let you try one for a few days so you have the chance to try it out on longer rides. A bicycle seat that was comfortable on a short leisurely ride may be torture on your long bicycle commute. If you don't have an LBS that will let you exchange your saddle easily to do this, than look for an online retailer who will.

[xeney]

I don't think they do much for me. I rode for a couple of years on a Terry Butterfly, but eventually I switched to a narrower, firmer saddle and immediately got rid of the chafing around my sit bones. My new saddle is a Fizik Vitesse, no cutout, and I have had no problems with girly bits because they don't come in contact with the saddle.

I also liked my husband's Selle Italia okay, although it was just a little too narrow, but although it has a cutout I think the cutout is too narrow to have done me any good.

The worst saddle I ever rode was the one that came on my Bianchi ... instead of a cutout, it has a big padded bulge right in that spot! A 15-mile ride chafed me so badly that I was actually bleeding when I got home. (My husband now uses that saddle on his daily commuter, which makes me think he must be a little crazy.)

[Aggie_Ama]

Proof that saddles are personal... Xeney's Fizik is the saddle I wouldn't buy my bike until the shop removed it. Unfortunately for many, saddles are a very expensive trial and error. I was lucky to love my first one and have a good idea what I was looking for on my current one.