Century, Brevet, and Long Distance Touring Saddle - Suggestions?

I always look at wide they are in the back. Long distance you need
something to sit on. I've done long distance on the selle pro-link, and it
seems to work for me. The flite was too skinny for long distance.

Callistus Valerius wrote:
I always look at wide they are in the back. Long distance you need
something to sit on. I've done long distance on the selle pro-link, and it
seems to work for me. The flite was too skinny for long distance.

I wouldn't say the Flite is too skinny for me for long distances, but
it's not flat enough, and the padding's not firm enough. The shell is
quite excellent though. Probably not the best choice for the OP, but
the one thing that it has, that's worth looking for, is a perfectly
smooth top. Small seams and logos that are slightly annoying aftert 30
miles can be awful after 100.

The WTB saddles are well liked by a lot of folks, and really fairly
priced. Worth a shot if you're on a budget. Or you can be cheap like
Veloise and myself and ask if you can poke around in the parts bin at
the LBS and test ride a few. I found my perfect saddle in the cutlery
bin at the local thrift store. It's a lovely $100 Italian thing, but
discarded as somebody didn't know how to clean salt stains. 50c. For
that price I'm willing to desalinate somebody elses sweat stains. :-P

Per Steve Sr.:
I am begining to get this same impression about saddles like a Brooks
B-17 which are considerably wider than other saddles.

Think "usable width".

A B-17 is 170 mm wide. 100% of a B-17's width is usable.

A WDB Speed-V is also 170 mm wide. Look underneath it and you'll see that it's
usable width is much less.
--
PeteCresswell

Brooks B17 is the best. WTB speed V isokay too.

Since everyone's anatomy and riding style are different, no one saddle
is "best" except on an individual basis.

I prefer the Brooks Team Pro (I have one on my favorite bike that I have
been riding since 1977-78) and have them on three bikes. I have the
Lepper Voyageur on two bikes and it is very nice but not quite the
saddle for 300 km rides. The B.17 is a little too wide for me. I rode
a WTB sst for several years, but that really didn't have enough flex in
the saddle to be comfortable for really long rides. I also tried the
Avocet Air O2 40M for a while but it just wasn't quite right for me.
Back in my racing days I rode a Flite for one year and that was enough
of that. I mostly rode on a Rolls Ti saddle on my race bikes and that
was pretty good.

The more upright you sit, the wider and flatter a saddle you will likely
need. It's not softness but saddle flex that makes for comfort. Your
personal dimensions (e.g., "sit" bone width) and your weight are an
issue.

If you did a survey you'd find that any dozen riders will have 15
opinions on saddles. ;-)