dmagic17 wrote:
Huh ok - I don't really notice the saddle, but could try dual-nosed again. I have tried them in the past, but disliked due to the extra width and padding.
You say you don't notice the saddle, but that appears to be because you arch your lower back a huge amount to accommodate it, which is sub-optimal from an overall fit/performance perspective. Folks in this thread are saying you're sitting on the bike wrong, and it's likely because of the saddle. Does that make sense?
I'll try to elaborate. In that pic, you're sitting on the back part of what looks like a pretty conventional road saddle. So you have to rotate your pelvis backwards to minimize your genitals being crushed. The idea with a noseless saddle (Fizik Mistica, ISM, etc.) is that you sit up on the nose of it and your genitals are free in space (inside your shorts anyway). That enables you to rotate your pelvis forward, straighten your spine - both enabling better power as well as a flatter, lower position.
But, it has to be the right noseless saddle for you, and it has to be positioned properly. If you just stick the new saddle where the current one is, then you'll either sit on the back of it (which misses the point), or you'll be squished so far forward that you'll feel even worse. So, figure out where your sit bones want to be on the current saddle, then position the noseless saddle with a point 4-5cm back from the very front tip at that point. The front tip of the saddle will necessarily be much further back than the tip of your current saddle.
If your experience to date with noseless saddles has been that they are too wide or too soft, look at the ISM PN series, the Fizik Tritone or Mistica (normal, not wide width), the Fabric Tri, or the PRO Stealth. Those all come with noses between 52-55mm wide, and are not overly padded. In particular, the Fabric is pretty hard, and the PRO has pretty thin padding.