Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Madison, WI
Posts: 11,214
Bikes: 1961 Ideor, 1966 Perfekt 3 Speed AB Hub, 1994 Bridgestone MB-6, 2006 Airnimal Joey, 2009 Thorn Sherpa, 2013 Thorn Nomad MkII, 2015 VO Pass Hunter, 2017 Lynskey Backroad, 2017 Raleigh Gran Prix, 1980s Bianchi Mixte on a trainer. Others are now gone.
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I have bought two C-17 saddles. First one felt stiffer than most others I have seen, so when that did not work out, bought a second one that had the weatherproof top, that one felt like it had the same stiffness of many of the others I have seen. But that was too stiff for me too.
Loaned the weatherproof one to a friend hoping he would buy it from me, he tested it and declined. The first one I got is now on my utility bike for grocery shopping and errands, it works for that since that bike never goes more than five or six miles in a day. The weatherproof one is in storage.
We have all read that some people like the leather Brooks B-17 out of the box, but many of us (including me) need to break the leather ones in for several hundred miles. I am guessing that the people that think the hard leather ones when new out of the box are the same people that would like the C series of saddles because they do not "break in".
I am sticking with leather. For me the B-17 (or Flyer) is too wide, I use a Conquest or Pro, the Conquest is essentially a sprung Pro.
That said, I have seen a lot of Cambium saddles (not sure if C-17 or a different model) on randonneuring bikes. And those are ridden for brevets of 200 km to 1200 km. And those riders that I asked if they liked those saddles were very happy with them. So, some people clearly like them.