I need help with my saddle. I'm at the end of my rope.

[TigerMom]

I love my Selle ITalia Max SLR Gel flow saddle which is 143mm wide and has one of the biggest cut-out on the market. I use this saddle on both my road and mountain bike. Be careful, Selle Italia has a lot of names that sound similar to the saddle that I like but are NOT that saddle.

If you can get demo saddles before you buy at your local bike shop, I would recommend that first.

[Wahine]

I love my Selle ITalia Max SLR Gel flow saddle which is 143mm wide and has one of the biggest cut-out on the market. I use this saddle on both my road and mountain bike. Be careful, Selle Italia has a lot of names that sound similar to the saddle that I like but are NOT that saddle.

If you can get demo saddles before you buy at your local bike shop, I would recommend that first.

The Selle Italia line is quite nice, and yes, you have to be very careful about model names. They also change frequently with the company often dropping a model entirely and replacing it with something similar under a completely different name.

In addition to the chafing, do you have other problems with pain? For example, soreness (feeling like you're bruised) in front of your sit bones or between your legs (I think that's the pubic bone? Wahine is that right?)

Yes.

Does anyone know of a good LBS in the Kansas City area? We had an REI open in the Kansas area this fall, (about 80 miles from my home) so I thought maybe they would have something that I could try and return.

How close are you to Emporia? Astonishing as it may seem, they seem to have a very nice shop there with people who are familiar with distance riding because of this event.

[nanaterry]

NY Biker, I don't have any other pain with the B68S, just the chafing. With the Riva I did have a pressure pain along with the chafing. Maybe the Riva was too padded along with being to wide?

Wahine, Emporia is about 150 miles away. Just a little to far to be trying to exchange seats.

[Boudicca]

Could you order online from REI, and then return by mail if it's not comfortable? The cost of the postage is probably less than what it would cost you in gas. Also look at Performance for the same idea. You probably have a pretty good idea of what you want.

For my first Terry Butterfly (my go-to saddle) I bought it just ahead of a week-long bike tour and got the tour company to fit the saddle to the rental bike. I figured that if it didn't work, I would take the saddle back at the end of the week.

It worked.

[Sky King]

Most of us "online" bike stores offer six month return on saddles. We find most riders know within two weeks if a saddle is going to fit well enough to hold onto.