Originally Posted by
Camilo
That's what I use (flat) and have never had a problem with soreness anywhere. I've homed in on the Kontact saddle, and it's predecessor, the E3 Form which was sold by Performance a decade or so ago. I'm so happy with it, I stockpiled some E3's when I could get them on EBay and bike swaps for cheap and lately bought a Kontact- same saddle, different styling. The description of the design by the guy who designed it touted it's ability to avoid pressure that is normally addressed with a cutout, therefore no cutout needed. My experience is true to that.
It does have a small amount of minimal padding. I believe excessive padding will actually exacerbate pundendal type pressure because the sit bones sink into the padding and cause pressure elsewhere, thus exacerbating the need for a cutout. The Kontact/E3 design addresses that without a cutout.
But everyone has to find their own saddle. I recommend at least trying the Kontact or better yet, if you can find an E3 Form on Ebay, it will be a cheap test.
I might try that someday!
It's a thing when you needed a cutout. Unfortunately, many designers simply put a hole in the same "sloping-side" saddle design. It can still put pressure on the fleshy bits because of the sloping sides but if you make the hole bigger, it starts hurting the sitbones. Any pressure on the fleshy bits would make you feel unstable on the saddle and that's wasted energy and major cause of discomfort for constantly adjusting to a stable position.
The solution is a saddle that only slopes little to the side.