GrumpyGregry
Here for rides.
Dropping my bars by 1 inch on a recent longish ride tamed my Swift.True is that! The worst saddle I ever owned was a £300+ Brooks Swift Ti on my uber-commuter. It was nasty to my bum on day one and continued to be nasty for 3 solid years and 12,000km until a rail broke. I replaced it with a £40 Aliante from my parts bin.
You clearly have an 'arris of steel to go 12k km on a bad saddle.