Smoke & Mirrors?

[pooks]

You make some good points, Darcy. I think the difference between getting advice on TE and at an LBS is that I knew going into it that advice from TE would be subjective and have many variables. I wasn't quite as prepared for how much the advice from the different LBSes and even different people at the same LBS would vary.

You're also very right about the fact that I may not have enough time on my saddle to know how comfortable it is; I just know that it was automatically more comfortable than the one that came on my hybrid so that was an automatic improvement.

As for riding for hours -- that's probably an entirely new thread! Because I do have questions about that.

[Crankin]

Well, I tried the Brooks Finesse (their racing saddle) on my road bike because I was having issues... I hated it. I broke it in, but it caused more issues and really, I thought it just didn't look right on my Kuota. I would have kept anything on there if it eliminated the soft tissue issue. I did go back to the lbs and he was upset that I had not come in earlier. He discovered a tiny leg length discrepency, made me a shim and off I went. I put the Terry Firefly back on and voila! It was only with the different geometry of my new bike that I started having issues with the Serfas saddle that I had for 4 years.
My point is that I had an extensive 2 hour computer generated fitting, with all kinds of measurements. He still missed the leg length discrepency. It was my fault for not going back immediately and taking care of it. This shop deals mostly with racers or real newbies and not people like me who are more avid riders, but not competitive. They generally are very nice and they have a woman mechanic.
Do what's best for you.