A non-leather Brooks B68 workalike?

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I have not found any saddle besides the B68 that are wide eonugh for my sit bones- except for perhaps some gigantic puffy foam monstrosities... like one I borrowed once for 2 hours and had the most painful ride of my life on.

[divingbiker]

As a fellow vegan, and a B-68 owner, I know what you're going through. I agonized for a long time, and in the end I decided that we all just do the best that we can do, and I ended up buying the leather saddle.

I sometimes have to buy leather shoes since I have very hard-to-fit feet, and I decided the saddle was no different--I have a very hard-to-fit butt. I'd never eat animal products or buy a leather purse or a leather coat, but I love my wide saddle and I don't beat myself up for it.

[KnottedYet]

I go through red-meat-angst every so often. Though I am pretty staunchly omnivore, I feel like there is too much red meat raised too cruelly in my corner of the universe. (Loved the book "Omnivore's Dilemna", btw!)

Like BSG, I have very wide sit bones, and the only saddle that seems to fit me properly is the B66-67-68-72.

I kind of figure that since I eat red meat very rarely and only have leather where it is truly necessary, that I'm minimizing my mammalian-consumption impact.

But if you are leaning toward vegan, and omnivory just doesn't cut it, maybe you could look at some of the Fizik saddles? I had one that was not too bad. Kind of wide-ish (but not enough for me) and very minimal padding. I lent it to a friend, so I can't tell you which saddle it was.

(and maybe it's dorky, but I always thank the animal I eat or whose hide I use... which is a lot easier when I've watched the critter grow up in the meadow next to my mom's house and know its name!)

[bean fidhleir]

Does anyone have any experience - even secondhand - with the Sportourer Kaalam saddle, or know what it's covered with ("skin FTG" doesn't tell me anything - I'm sure in this case FTG doesn't mean Full Thickness Graft!) ? The width (210) and weight (410g) both look very good.

http://aebike.com/page.cfm?PageID=30...ils&sku=SA3513

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Does anyone have any experience - even secondhand - with the Sportourer Kaalam saddle, or know what it's covered with ("skin FTG" doesn't tell me anything - I'm sure in this case FTG doesn't mean Full Thickness Graft!) ? The width (210) and weight (410g) both look very good.

After looking at this saddle on quite a few sites, it looks like there is no mention of actual leather anywhere. "Skin FTG" could just be their brand name for a leather-like vinyl. If it was real leather you can bet they would brag about it. Besides, it looks like genuine vinyl.

[bean fidhleir]

It looks a quite high-quality vinyl (or as we call it: "vegan leather" ) if it is vinyl. I tend to agree with you that if it were leather, they'd probably say so.

Apparently it's made by Selle Italia, fwtw.

I'm a little unsure about the shape, since I'm quite knock-knee'd. I'd prefer a more definitely T-shaped one. And one that provided perineal pressure relief. But it seems to be the best one I've found so far that's (probably) not leather.