Vitesse HP or SSM Aspide Glamour?

[VeloVT]

Hi Missy,
have you considered the Fizik Arione? Might be worth looking at, if you are looking at narrowish saddles without cutouts. I like it so much that I have one on each bike. I can finally do long rides without saddle discomfort.

I mention it because it doesn't have the front-to-back "scoop" that the Aliante has -- it's quite flat from tip to tail, which = comfortable, for me at least. (The Aliante, while I think it is a pretty saddle, has never appealed to me because the contour has always looked to me like it would put pressure in uncomfortable places).

I also do find myself scooting back on descents and riding on the nose to sprint and climb -- the extra "rideable" length really is useful (when the Arione was introduced there was a lot of hype about it being, at the time anyway, the longest saddle on the market). I also really like the very gradual transition from nose to back. I find with many saddles I "run into" the back when I transition from riding further forward (as I might when trying to accelerate in a seated postion) to riding in a more relaxed position, but this doesn't happen with the Arione -- very easy, seamless transitions from one position to another. Of course, I have seen many women on this board comment that they have more chafing issues with "pear-shaped" saddles than with "t-shaped saddles" -- the Arione would probably fall more in the former category (though it's narrow enough that it doesn't cause chafing for me), so that might be a drawback for some.

It's very interesting how different everyone's saddle preferences are. Hope you find something you like!