Originally Posted by
Flatballer
Finding the right saddle has to be the most frustrating bike part to buy. I need something new, mostly okay on the road, really numb on the trainer when I'm not moving around much. Current saddle also has a ton of miles on it and is showing its age.
Finding a place to demo is proving very difficult. And the saddles I'd like to try are of course absurdly expensive (Selle SMP stuff for like $250, even cheaper Specialized or Selle Italia ones I'm interested in are $150+).
And local shops suck. There isn't a good performance/race oriented LBS within 30 minutes of me. All the saddles I see on their shops have way too much padding, so even buying and returning doesn't really work.
Good luck with the saddle. Years ago I was looking for a new saddle in my LBS and he had a really nice Selle Italia which was more than I wanted to spend, but it looked like it would work, so he told me I could take it home and put it on my bike and return it if I didn't like the fit. I decided to take it for a ride and of course, it rained.
The sand and road grit ground the logos off and dulled the leather, so I had to buy it. Fortunately I liked it a lot and rode it until the rail snapped on a climb.