I love the B17 and C17 saddles. They work really well for me as does the Berthoud Aspin. But the saddle I have gravitated towards is the WTB Pure V saddle. The V is important. They made a WTB Pure and there was something a bit off for me. I have these on most bikes now with a few stashed away since they are no longer made. I ride in standard shorts with no padding and the Pure V just disappears. Not too soft and not too firm.
I have found the WTB Volt to also work very well for me and those are currently available.
Robert Tilley San Diego, CA
Sent from my iPhone On Jun 15, 2025, at 8:50 AM, 'Chris Buckley' via RBW Owners Bunch <[email protected]> wrote:
I found the C17 to be quite uncomfortable on my sit bones, but I think that's because I didn't give it enough of a chance. I'm considering one again after putting a vintage San Marco Rolls on my road bike and finding it to be incredibly uncomfortable regardless of what I wear (i.e. bibs/no bibs). To borrow a (slightly less rude) term from the track bike community, it's a real "butt hatchet."
I've had a range of saddles, both modern and vintage and they've been at various places on the comfort spectrum, but the absolute worst was a Kashimax Five Gold that was part of a full-NJS track bike build. And it was awful. Awful, awful, awful.
I love the B17s, I find them fantastically comfortable once broken in! As Eric said, they do have a tendency towards either not being weatherproof or getting a bit gross under a waxed cotton cover (especially when that waxed cotton cover goes mouldy, erk). But the solution I found was to just keep riding them despite their shortcomings as I've found them the most comfortable saddle for just riding around in shorts.
- Chris On Monday, June 9, 2025 at 8:29:23 PM UTC+10 Eric Daume wrote:
The worst saddle I ever had was the stock Velo (?) saddle on the original Clem. So actually painful for me that I didn’t make it to the end of the block before turning around and changing it out.
Not a fan of Brooks leather saddles. I’ve tried them a handful of times, but to me they’re just hard, heavy, slippery, expensive, uncomfortable, and not weatherproof. No thanks. I am finding I like the C series though. They address most of these concerns AND have much nicer saddle bag loops.
Eric A thread dedicated to complaining about saddles! Plus other related topics such as cycling shorts, chamois cream, improper bike fit, and weather. Enjoy :-)
I'll start. And I'm going to go with, weather. Hot. Humid. Leave-you-dripping-in-sweat. Weather.
I've had Brooks C17 on my two bikes for the last 15 months. After initially installing the saddle and sitting upon it as I went 20 feet from my driveway I was like "this fits me well, it's supportive, yet I can still sink into it a bit, feels good when I'm pedalling". And it really has been great, with only a few hiccups since then. One thing I don't like about it, the surface is rough. The brown is rougher than the black, to me at least. The black is on my Salsa Fargo. I don't think I have one complaint about that saddle on that bike, but then I only ride that bike up to 1.5hrs at a time, on trails, where I'm off the saddle a lot (similar to mtb). I have the brown on my Roadini and it looks good. I even have a back-up for when it wears out. Enough about that, on to my complaint!
The last time I rode in heat, like where I'm wearing s/s shirt, shorts, helmet and gloves and no extra layers, was October 2024. I put the year after October as it was so long ago it's now strange writing or saying October, without qualifying - 2024. Riding in cool weather so often means I'm really acclimated to it, plus I'm generally not a fan of doing anything outdoors when it's hot.
Yesterday I had the day to myself as the family was working. I usually ride within an hour of waking up and I wake up early, but yesterday I waited for my daughter to leave for work so we can have breakfast together. This was going to be a long ride, adventurous with a new route, connecting two rail trails, lots of gravel paths and roads, and very little traffic. Stopping a lot to smell the flowers. And it would have been great, if not for some discomfort. Oh, and I had legs, and felt great.
I headed out around 9:30 and it was actually quite pleasant, and wasn't really getting very hot, but to me, hot enough. I have three brands of bib shorts. I opted for the one yesterday that fits me the best (I mean it really stays in place, doesn't ride up or anything, including the chamois, with the outer layer apparently taking any friction as it moves and the bib doesn't). Sounds good, good marketing, but I learned that when you're hot, have been pedalling for over 3 hours on gravel roads, trails; lots of pedalling in the saddle, having to remember to stand up every so often; that a bib glued to your butt so-to-speak, getting all hot and sweaty (sorry, TMI), isn't all that good. About 2.5hr into the ride I can feel the friction on the sit bones. Stopped a lot, but could never maneuver myself or the chamois, like on long descents, I couldn't get any air in there. Long story short, got home and had a couple of saddle sores. Nothing awful, but it did have me questioning the saddle, shorts, and riding in the heat. I mean these shorts are great under winter rights when the temp is -10C, but now I've learned, not so good for hot days. This morning I went for a short trail ride, different shorts, and that riding style on that bike meant lots of out-of-the-saddle time, plus it was cool. Was a fantastic ride, albeit short.
What have you got!?
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