Puzzled by saddles

[woodbutcher]

I have six bicycles available for me to ride, out of which l ride four regularly. They are all set up as well as l can for me and which one l choose to ride on any given day depends on the weather, the phase of the moon, my mood etc.etc. so they are all ridden regularly. Each bike has a different saddle and if 3 stars is a top comfort score ,this is how l rate them :-
Sel Italia -Gel-Flow **
Sel Italia Turbo Matic2 *
Charge Spoon **
Charge Knife no stars at all ! I quite see why its called "knife"!! when l get off the bike l wouldn't be surprised to find a couple of spherical objects left behind on the saddle.
I guess that all this guff proves nothing much except that for me it raises the question "why can't all saddles have a reasonable level of comfort"? Or maybe this is a pointless question and just have too much time on my hands today

 

[Cycleops]

Because saddles are a personal thing so when you get one that suits your arse bones stick with it.

 

[midlife]

BITD riders swapped the same saddle from bike to bike (and from team to team)... sometimes people would drop a bike off at the shop for some work and take the saddle off to use on their other bike.

 

[MikeG]

........for me it raises the question "why can't all saddles have a reasonable level of comfort"?.........

For me it raises the question "why don't you have 2 Charge Spoons, and 2 Sel-Italia Gel Flows?"

 

[MikeG]

BITD riders.....

Who?

 

[midlife]

Who?

. Club riders and also team riders. They got a new bike for the new season and tended to keep the saddle.

 

[MikeG]

What does BITD stand for? I thought it was obvious what I was asking.

 

[midlife]

Sorry, BITD stands for "back in the day", which for me was the 1970's

 

[biggs682]

All the bike's i use for 10+ mile rides are all fitted with either selle smp 209 lite or selle smp trk's as i find them very comfy and forgiving

 

[Old jon]

Who?

Me, and a lot of other riders I knew.

 

[Racing roadkill]

Saddles tend to come in 3 or 4 basic shapes. Flat, curved, scooped, or stubby.

Flat is generally used for racing / hardcore road applications, curved for less aggressive road type riding, scooped for more upright / off road, and stubby for TT type rides. Obviously there’s no black and white, but this is pretty much how it works.

 

[roadrash]

why can't all saddles have a reasonable level of comfort"?

because saddles are different shapes and your arse is only one shape

 

[woodbutcher]

because saddles are different shapes and your arse is only one shape

True, l've been stuck with the same arse for a number of years now but even if saddles are different shapes does it follow that they have to be different degrees of comfort/discomfort.

 

[further]

Brooks B17 say no more

 

[mjr]

BITD riders swapped the same saddle from bike to bike (and from team to team)... sometimes people would drop a bike off at the shop for some work and take the saddle off to use on their other bike.

Which IMO only works if the bikes have a reasonably similar riding position. I've very different saddles on different bikes.