Worn-out saddle -- how long does yours last?

[Crankin]

I wear saddles out quickly (around 2 years) and we always have an extra Terry Falcon X around because it happens suddenly. I am "crooked," seriously, and I wear out the left side in a noticeable way. I ride between 2,000 and 3,300 miles a year. It's just the way it is. I also go through helmets like crazy. The parts (padding) inside fall off, get weird from the copious amount of sweat I produce. I now have 2 helmets that I switch between, but even the newest one I have is already messed up looking.

[Catrin]

TIS rather than mileage makes sense, I hadn't thought about it that way. My average speed is around 12mph, so it takes me longer than many to go the same distance. Perhaps that 2k wasn't as short as I realized...

[ny biker]

I suppose weight has an effect in addition to total ride time. I'm a good 35 lbs heavier than Crankin and Emily.

I bought the new saddle and had it put on the bike last night. The foam in the old one definitely feels less firm than the new one. If the weather people are right and our lunch-time rain storm really does move out of here in the next couple of hours, I should be able to do a short ride on it tonight. That's not enough to see if the chafing is solved, but I can at least see if the feeling of the saddle being tilted is gone.

[OakLeaf]

Rider weight, rider boniness, how aggressively you ride, how bumpy the roads are, whether you do a lot of climbing which takes weight out of the saddle even if you climb seated, particulars of how you fit on the saddle, particulars of how the saddle is constructed ... I think it's as individual as how long running shoes last. There's a range that people quote as a general rule, but in the case of shoes it's a very large range, and I'd expect it's the same thing with saddles.

Just like shoes, there's generally visible compression in the saddle a good while before I notice the ride starting to degrade. It sounds like the compression you're seeing is fairly advanced, so I'm sure you're right about the saddle being worn out.

[ny biker]

Holy cow, what a difference. The new RXL is so much firmer than the old one had become, I'm surprised my sit bones aren't sore from last night's ride. It was certainly the first time in a while that I could feel them supporting me on the saddle. If I hadn't bought both saddles myself, I wouldn't believe they were the same make and model.