Saddle Sores - Sorry maybe TMI

[seeker]

Ok, when I lean forward just until my elbows touch my knees, I'm completely smooched. If I keep leaning forward, soft tissue is against the seat but not as smooched.

I noticed today that I'm not as smooched if I'm completely down in the drops. But I can't sustain that position for more than 5 minutes or so, especially if I'm working hard. If I'm up on the hoods, I'm much more smooched.

Still working on a pic. I have an @ss for a DH. This is not a new quality in him. It's his baseline personality.

[KnottedYet]

So, it sounds like to start you need a 7 1/4 to 8 inch wide saddle with a cutout.

I'm guessing light and minimal padding would be a plus, and probably a "T" shaped flat profiled saddle.

Ok, y'all, let's find her saddle!

(other than a Brooks B68 Imperial, which won't be out for another few months.)

[seeker]

Ok, I've been looking at saddles all over the internet. I cannot find anything 7 1/4 to 8 inches wide. I looked at Brooks saddles and they don't have cutouts. Specialized has some nice saddles but I can't really tell how wide the cutouts are from the pics. I've looked at Terry Saddles too. I don't mind spending over $100.00. I'll pay what it takes to be comfortable.
Any suggestions?

[Trek420]

What saddles does your LBS carry? If few is there another shop?

My LBS has a 30 day no questions asked (well, he will ask questions) warranty. I could walk in, say my current saddle is bleh and try another one. And if I don't love that try another .... fortunately I've always liked the ones he installed.

It's one thing to look online but another to sit on the thing.

[sundial]

Besides the Brooks saddle, I came up with this.

[Trek420]

I forgot this one, the Koobi. Spazzdog (who lurks here. Hi Spazz!!!!) loves the Koobi. They are not in stores, it's all online. But she'll ride no other saddle and says all is well "down there" on a Koobi

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=1318

[KnottedYet]

And there's the Terry Rosie (7 inches is close enough!) which is backordered.
(just the fact that it's backordered sends the message I hope saddle designers get, that women need wider saddles out there!)

And the Topeak Allay, but they haven't learned yet (like Terry did) that wider doesn't necessarily require *more* padding.

Both have cutouts. (unlike Brooks, until the Brooks B68 Imperial comes out in the Fall.)

www.koobi.com has a pretty interesting selection of widths, padding levels, and profiles. The widest I found in my quick glance was 160mm, but they had cutouts out to the end of the nose. Kinda interesting.

[seeker]

I like the SelleSMP. Does anyone have one? Or know anyone who uses one? I've never dealt with Masherz. Are they pretty good about returns?

[Thorn]

The SMP Lady Strike is the only saddle I currently ride. There are several of us on the board that ride it. This thread probably has one of the better summaries:
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...ighlight=selle

My opinion summary...it is just a teensy bit too soft, but definitely not poofy. It is a little wide in the nose so some days it chafes a little on the thighs. I've learned which shorts work well with it and have minimized that issue. But the cutout is wonderfuly wide and is the real reason it is my current saddle of choice (but, yes, I'm standing in line for the B68 Imperial).

When you set it up, keep the sit area of the saddle flat. When you do that, the nose will look too much "nose up". That is OK. The cutout takes care of it.

I bought mine from bikemania. I haven't had to return anything from there. I'm not sure how it would work as nothing ships from bikemania--everything always ships direct from the manufacturer.

[OakLeaf]

Specialized has some nice saddles but I can't really tell how wide the cutouts are from the pics.

Measurements from my 155 mm Lithia. Don't know if the cutout is the same on their other saddles. HTH.

[sundial]

Knot, I first thought of Koobi but figured it wasn't available in the size you wanted. One of our competitive cyclists swears by Koobi.

I've had good results with Specialized but the largest width is 155 mm. Many are touting the Toupe as one of the great saddles Specialized offers. Specialized saddles are basically flat and I've had no issues with pain on the inside of my sit bones, much less the girly parts. Terry saddles seem to taper too quickly and I always had sit bone pain.

[seeker]

Thanks for the link Thorn. I did read through that thread and it seems there were quite a few opinions.
And then the Koobi owners swear by the Koobi's. In comparing the Selle and the Koobi, it looks like the Selle has a wider cutout. Would you say that's an accurate assessment? I am not a visual person so it's kind of hard for me to tell by the pictures.

I've only found the Selle at Masherz and the main Selle site. So I'm guessing I would need to order from Masherz. Decisions, decisions.

[Thorn]

The Selle SMP line probably does have the largest cutout around (although there is the ?Arione? that someone pointed in another thread with a nice cutout). But the Koobi and Selle SMP are very different saddles with very different shapes. The Selle SMP Lady Strike is wider in the back than any of the Koobis.

Except for its cutout (which looks very interesting to me, but, alas the rear is too narrow for me...sigh), the Koobi is a more traditionally shaped saddle. That is, relatively flat nose to tip and side to side. All saddles vary in their curvatures, but the Selle SMP really stretches the limits of curvature rear to nose.

[newridder]

i, too, have problems like seeker. i got the bike to lose weight but that area is terribly painful when ridding. t have tried diff saddles; was fitted on bike- had the problem then. fitter used butt measurer. had another fitter in diff state take look. he tilted saddle back-- helped a little. tried the wonder seat but could not stay on bike when sudden stop. losing interest in biking. thinking of trying diff shorts-- any advice.

[KnottedYet]

Newrider - try doing the self measurements for your sit bones, and the cut-out test. Tell us what you get for those (sitbone span and yes/no cutout). Tell us what saddles you tried and what you liked or didn't like about each.

Someone here has probably dealt with finding a saddle similar to your needs, and will be able to help!

(and how does the saddle you have now feel if you ride in unpadded shorts?)