Saddle Suggestion other than Brooks

[staehpj1]

In my experience, you can't really tell how well the saddle is working until after a month on tour. (If you can tell earlier than that, then you probably didn't use your saddle enough before the tour.) Your experiences training for a tour are useful, but the tour itself, with day after day of 60 miles or more, is much more demanding than your training will ever be.

Maybe I am just weird in this regard, but I can happily tour on most saddles except really very bad ones.  All the saddles that came with my bikes have been fine.  I never had one get worse after a month on tour.  On the other hand I have had a few saddles that felt bad for the first several hundred miles until my butt broke in to them.

To the OP, I suggest using what ever you currently ride on unless it isn't working.  If you need to change I like a normal road bike saddle rather than a special touring design.  The Prologo Kappa (model name corrected, I had it wrong when I posted) is what I put on the last bike I built up and it is pretty comfortable for me.

[HoolieWA]

For me without a doubt is the Sella Anatomica Titanico.  I have tried at least 9 different saddles over the years.  Last September I did a short 200 mile tour using the Sella saddle for the first time.  Never once did I experience pain or discomfort. As well I did not use any sort of cream.

[paddleboy17]

For me without a doubt is the Sella Anatomica Titanico.  I have tried at least 9 different saddles over the years.  Last September I did a short 200 mile tour using the Sella saddle for the first time.  Never once did I experience pain or discomfort. As well I did not use any sort of cream.

I tried a Titanico, and went back to a Brooks B-17.  I have a friend who cannot ride a Brooks long enough to break one in, and in does well on a Titanico.

Did you try a Brooks? 

[HoolieWA]

I never did try a Brooks.  It would have been my next choice if the Titantico had not worked out.  There is one other saddle that I like but only for rides that are 70 miles or less and doesn't involve touring. It is a saddle made by Giant. It came with my Avail 1 road bike.  The road bike has since been sold and now that saddle is on my mountain bike.

Julie

[misterflask]

Since we're talking leather saddles;
I once crossed tracks with a european cyclist with a nice-looking leather saddle that used flat-head allen screws instead of rivets to fasten the leather to the frame.  Does this ring a bell with anyone?  I think name may have begun with a 'G'. 

[tex232]

This one ?
http://sheldonbrown.com/harris/gilles-berthoud-saddles.html

I have had one for a couple of years.  Was incredibly hard and took quite some time to break in but I do like it

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk

[misterflask]

That's it, Thanks.
Not an impulse buy, I see.
tnx agn

[JDFlood]

I had about six bikes and eight really expensive saddles, mostly Selle, and well over $100 per. But when I got to around 35 or 40 miles or more, my butt would really hurt. I tried split saddles, gel saddles, etc. Finally, got a Brooks. End of problem. For me they are comfortable from the first use, although granted they are much stiffer than later. Folks around worked loved me, just about everyone that rode a bike got a free $150 saddle from me. I have a titanium rail sparrow ... or swift or whatevery it is called for my 17lb titanium bike and B-17s on several, and a couple other models. But I'm sure never going back to anything else.

[milestonerides]

I've heard really good things about the Terry Liberator series saddle. 

[bogiesan]

Hope you all got this sorted out. I have ridden with folks on supported tours who hate their bikes which, of course, turns out to be a complaint about and inappropriately shaped or improperly positioned saddle.

I don't know how one shops for a saddle these days. The sales staff at one of the local shops are as confused as most of their customers. The experience of other riders is useless unless we can closely compare our anatomies. 
A quick googilian revealed no fewer than 15 saddles similar to Brooks, including three that are even more expensive and made of heavier, finer, thicker, and nicer leathers and that have larger copper nameplates held on with far cooler titanium bolts. REI lists 9 or more manufacturers and some 50 models of performance and cushioned bike saddles. The designs for men are clearly at opposite ends of physical reality. Support for the sits? Male-centric central void that, curiously, has arrived on female-specific saddles (news to me)? Long tongue? Narrow at the rear? Minimalist Italian elegance? Dual density luxury? 
http://www.rei.com/product/875586/fizik-arione-versus-x-kium-saddle-mens
http://www.rei.com/product/736826/serfas-lycra-dual-density-saddle-mens
http://www.rei.com/product/813902/serfas-rx-saddle-mens

One more reason I love my recumbent: My seat is 3" of open/closed cell foam sandwich and there's even a backrest.