Quote Originally Posted by KnottedYet View Post
A regular saddle that actually FITS YOU should be no more uncomfortable than sitting on a hard wooden chair. (if sitting on a wooden chair causes you numbness and soft tissue problems, then you want to be looking for a saddle that both fits your sit bones - 1 or 2 cm wider than your outside measurement, and with saddle cheeks that match your center-to-center measurement - AND that has a cut out.)

A saddle that fits you will have you weightbearing on your sit bones, with no weightbearing on the soft tissue. If someone is weightbearing on soft tissue, they are perching on a saddle that is too narrow.
My problem with a nosed saddle (personally) stems from the way I am built. I cannot maintain a road position with a nosed saddle without major pain in my soft tissue, stemming from the way my pelvis is built and how my weight gets distributed on a nosed saddle (and yes, I tried many nosed saddles in various widths/shapes, adjusted to various angles, etc etc.. I used to adjust my saddle every 5 miles on longer rides to see if I could eliminate the soft tissue pain. I rode with soft tissue pain for months, including tearing, bleeding, and missing skin. For me, it stems from the tilt of my pelvis in the road position (I experience similar problems when riding at a sitting trot on a horse in a forward hunt-seat position for extended periods of time, too.. part of why I switched to dressage), because I don't experience the same problems with a nosed saddle on my mountain bike that I ride in a much more upright position.

While, yes, it is possible that I could find a nosed saddle that eventually would work for me.. eliminating the nose (or, in my case, going to what looks more like a split nose) immediately eliminated the soft tissue problems. I would much rather lose a tiny bit of maneuverability by having a noseless saddle than experiment for another 6 months and come up still mostly-uncomfortable on a nosed saddle. The fact that I can now ride 50 miles and be fine (other than tired legs and tired sitbones from being in the saddle for hours) rather than riding 15 miles and crying because my labia have been torn and I am miserable and want to go home is enough for me to stick with my noseless saddle and recommend at least TRYING them to someone with similar soft tissue issues.

If you're going to experiment with nosed saddles of different shapes, sizes, and adjustments.. why not add a noseless saddle or two to your experiments and see if they work? It's really all trial and error, isn't it?