Saddle help- ?Terry Beetle, Liberator Y

[Triskeliongirl]

Well, for me the beetle was a no go, packed it up and returned it the day it arrived. So, what is good about it is that it indeed has a wide rear like the Brooks Finesse. But, what didn't work for me is that it is wide throughout, and that the transition between rear and nose is too far forward, so I still couldn't sit back enough or my thigns would hit the transition area. Also, the rails are short, so I still couldn't get it far back enough. Furthermore, the fabric cover is just plain yucky. I guess its what its advertised as, a low end recreational saddle, and what I was looking for is a high performance saddle for those of us with wider hip bones. It also made me realize that my broken in leather Brooks Finesse suits me better than a non-leather saddle, since I have been able to break it in with my twisted sit bones from my accident, so for anyone with non-perfectly symetrical anatomy, a Brooks really does have advantages. The only reason I was considering a change is that the rails on my Brooks Finesse are also on the short side. Its fine on my bike with a shallow seat tube angle, but I was hoping to get a tad further back on my bike with the steeper seat tube angle. In the future, I will make sure all bikes I buy have a seat tube angle that is compatable with my Finesse! I know the B67 is longer (per Lisa's post) but I didn't want the extra weight. And I have invested a year breaking in my 2 brooks finesse saddles............ I know another super laid back seat post is an option, but at this point I don't want to spend more money on a bike that doesn't fit me, so I'll put up with it until I can afford another bike.

[anakiwa]

I finally did a longer ride on the touring bike this weekend sitting on the Terry Beetle (BF and I went blueberry picking 30 miles away and I needed to ride the touring bike so I could use the panniers).

Overall, the shape suits me fairly well- it's wide in the rear which I need, and not too wide in the nose. The way the wide part tapers to the front may not be perfect, but it seems to fit better than the Terry Liberator and I've sat on much worse. The saddle did support me well enough- I rode 60 miles without feeling like it was caving in.

Here's the one problem- the cheap cloth covering isn't slippery enough (making it harder to move around on the saddle). At first it seemed like I could just get used to it. Over the course of the 60 miles though, I realized that this is an excellent way to promote chafing (normally the shorts slide over the saddle- in this case the shorts stick to the saddle, meaning my bottom has to slide over the shorts---chafing).

So my overall thoughts- it's fine on the commuter bike (and I've done worse), but sooner or later I'm going to need to replace it with something that I can ride for greater distances.

Triskelion- if you're still hunting for a saddle you might want to try the Avocet. It's still on my roadbike- I'll post a full review after the century we're planning on doing this weekend.