Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
That's what worked for me as a teen-ager, when leather was all there was in terms of road bike saddles. That saddle was an Italia. Centuries no problem once my butt got used to it. The saddle did not change at all. OTOH, that was over 55 years ago. My butt is not the same, for sure.
The leather thing is a tiny corner of the bike world with dedicated aficionados. I did randonneuring up until a few years ago. Out of 100 starters on a 400k, there might have been 2 leather saddles. Plus there's the whole rainwater thing. The leather folks are way over-represented in saddle threads on BF. I don't carry a torch for any particular saddle. I think there's a good reason why there are hundreds of different saddle models. It's not just capitalism run amuck.
I strongly suspect you are right on the overrepresentation thing, and I agree with you on all kinds of seat options out there. I'm sure at some point I will find a non leather seat that works great for me, for now a big part for me is that the things work very well for me, so I'm just simply reticent to change something that works.