To my very great dismay, my beloved 8-year-old Selle San Marco Squadra T HDP saddle is disintegrating. Don’t know how much longer I can nurse it along, so I am now contemplating a replacement. Oh joy.
Finding a new saddle ranks right up there with oral surgery on the fun-meter, thus my riding the old one to death. My requirements in a saddle are simple, but damn near impossible to find: A reasonably light saddle with a slightly-wider-than-normal nose. I don’t understand why this is not an obvious requirement for more triathletes, 'cause the need seems really logical to me: You’re tilted forward all the time, putting pressure on tender tissues right through your pubic bone. More surface area in the nose distributes the pressure more widely, thus it’s more comfortable. Even with my thunder-thighs, the wider nose has never inhibited my leg motion.
Saddle manufacturers seem to think that simply piling padding on a narrow nose solves the problem, but I didn’t find that to be true when I tried out an Azoto trigel a few years back. I’ll take wider over cushier any day!
I realize that guys seem to tolerate the narrow saddle thing pretty well, so I’m primarily asking the ladies: Can anyone recommend a good saddle with a slightly wider nose to try? I have a Terry Butterfly on my road bike and find it very comfortable for that bike, but in the forward position the hole in the saddle effectively reduces the nose area and isn’t very helpful.
Worst case scenario: I have an ancient “new stock” Selle Italia Lady Turbo (gotta be at least 12 or 13 years old) that I could throw on. Its nose is darn near as wide as the Squadra’s; only problem is that the Turbo is a bit heavy. But if there ain’t no other option out there, I’ll sacrifice weight savings for comfort. There are few things worse than an uncomfortable saddle, especially when you’re going long!
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.