Will angels sing when I get the right saddle?

[KnottedYet]

Angels will sing.

Sun will shine.

And after 100 miles, you may be tender in new areas, but over all you will feel pretty darn good.

I could hardly believe it the first time I rode on a Brooks B67 (I have monster-wide sit bones, in the 180mm range). Even though the new leather wasn't broken in and was as forgiving as a plank of wood, the saddle was amazingly comfortable. Finally, my butt bones were fully supported! My speed and efficiency increased dramatically as my muscles were free to work to pedal, instead of trying to protect my heinie.

A big part of saddle fit for me was to have a narrow transition zone from "sit" to "nose." ("T" shaped). Gradual wider transitions chafe the everlovin' cr@p out of me. I had a Serfas Niva that technically (by sitbone measurement) should have almost fit me ok, but it was more pear-shaped than "T" shaped and had a wide transition zone, and it was miserable. The old Terry Sport (early 1990's) had an abrupt narrow transition, and was great. Later versions of Terry saddles have a more gradual wide transition, and for me they are horrible and chafe.

Safe place to start is with a saddle at least as wide as your outside measurements (you want your bones holding your weight, not your hoo-ha!) and if it is domed and padded, you want the centers of the "cheeks" of the saddle to be the same as your center-to-center measurement. Someone posted a guide to cut-out size that related to inside measurements, but I don't remember what it was.

I don't know of any way to tell if you need a gradual wide transition from sit-to-nose or an abrupt narrow transition, other than to ride and see if you chafe (too gradual) or fall off the front of the sit area and jam the nose into your hoo-ha (too abrupt).

Edit To Add: by the way, since I found the saddle that really fits, I no longer need chamois. In fact, chamois just get in the way and annoy me now. I have several pairs of these: http://www.underarmour.com/shop/us/e...rt/1001226-001 in both 4 inch and 7 inch lengths, and they are perfect.