Rockhard saddle with no cutout advice please

[OakLeaf]

How wide a saddle do you need? And do you do better with T-shaped, or more pear-shaped? Start with the major fit criteria so you can eliminate a whole lot of saddles that won't work for you, then move on to the more subtle differences.

Harder than tensioned leather pretty much puts you on one of the uncovered carbon saddles. Expensive... and I think all of them are rather narrow, although again you don't say how wide a saddle you need.

[yellow]

Harder than tensioned leather pretty much puts you on one of the uncovered carbon saddles. Expensive... and I think all of them are rather narrow, although again you don't say how wide a saddle you need.

Yes, expensive and can be quite narrow. But it could work. My new saddle is the Selle Italia MEN'S SLR XC (yes, a "mountain bike" saddle on a road bike; it does have a cutout, though). The SLR is all three: hard, and narrow, and expensive! Once I got over the sticker shock I was pretty happy with it.

Have you looked at the aero Velo saddles?

[Grog]

+1 on "what width?" Have you measured your sitbone distance?

My guess is that the reason why you get soft-tissue pain is because your sitbones are not well supported at the back (and possible seat angle, see below). So the Brooks Team saddles would have been too narrow for you but the ones Mimi mentions might work. (Not 100% sure on the specs of each but I remember

Also saddle positioning could be an issue. Totally flat? Slight tilt forward or backward? Makes a WORLD of difference. Have you tried different things?

I also like rock-hard saddles and I would encourage everyone I know to get one. I currently ride a stock Bontrager saddle on my commuter that's surprisingly comfortable, and a Selle Italia SLR Lady Gel Flow (with a cutout). I have experienced cut-out saddles that hurt (Terry) and others that didn't (both ladies' and men's Selle Italia).