Red Rev

Hey folks
I'm planning on bring my girlfriend along on her first tour and I was wondering if there were any seats around for ladies touring. I ride on a Brookes B-17 that I love, but I'm not sure if that'd be good for here.
Any suggestions would be swell.

travelmama

I ride on a Brooks 17 and love it. It is as comfortable as the double cushioned seat I was using for years.

Yan 

Brooks also makes the Team Pro S: the women's version of the Team Pro. A friend of mine has one, but it's new so I can't tell you how it rides once it's broken it. I can tell you that it's both wider and shorter than the men's version, which I own.

Machka 

I'm a woman and I've put 44,000 km on a Men's Standard B-17. It's the best saddle I've ever had.

nwmtnbkr

Don't try to buy a saddle for her without her accompanying you. Women's sit bones tend to be wider than men's, that's why the majority of women don't find a man's saddle to be comfortable. The back of a man's saddle tends to be too narrow for most women (the nose on a man's saddle tends to be too long as well, putting stress on soft tissue when shifting on the saddle). Even though two women replying to this post find a man's Brooks saddle comfortable, I can testify to being very uncomfortable on the man's leather saddle that came on the European road bike I had in college. Brooks does make some saddles specifically for women; the rear of the saddle is wider and the nose shorter.

Machka 

Have a look at the dimensional difference between the Men's Standard B-17 and the Women's B-17:
https://www.wallbike.com/brooks/standardsaddles.html

Men's Standard: 170 X 280mm

Women's: 177 X 245mm

There is a whopping 7 mm difference in width. There are probably some women who need the extra 7 mm, but for many of us it's not enough to make a difference, or we don't feel we need the extra 7 mm because the men's Brooks is wide-ish already. The significant difference between the men's and women's B-17 is the length.

Many men's saddles are too narrow for women. I have tried to ride saddles like that and have been terribly uncomfortable. But the Brooks saddles tend to be a bit on the wide side in general ... which is probably why a lot of women prefer the men's version over the women's version. However it would be a good idea to measure her sitbones or try out a few saddles in a shop for width to make sure 170 mm will work.

nwmtnbkr

I bought a Terry saddle made specifically for women. It's the most comfortable saddle I've ever had on any of the bikes I've owned. I'm not certain Brooks really studied the differences between men's and women's sit bones when developing their women's saddles. A women's saddle has been in their line up for quite a while. It would be interesting to see if they conducted tests using modern equipment whether they could better modify their women's saddles to accommodate women's different needs, including soft tissue pressure/damage issues.

Machka 

IMO they don't need to modify anything at all. The saddle is just fine the way it is. I have no soft tissue pressure/damage issues at all, and I have ridden some fairly lengthy distances in ordinary shorts with no padding on my Brooks as well as thousands of km with padded shorts. And I don't have particularly narrow hips either.

For comparison sake:
The Terry Butterfly is 156 mm wide
The Terry Liberator is 147 mm wide
The Terry Damselfly is 129.5 mm wide

And the men's run anywhere from 140 mm to 147 mm.
https://www.terrybicycles.com/saddles


Their widest saddle is a full 21 mm narrower than the Women's Brooks. So I guess if you've got really narrow hips the Terry might be something to consider.

Red Rev

How do you do that exactly? Stupid question?

Thanks for all the advise!

Machka 

One way to do it is to find a sand box, or soft soil in a garden bed, or sand at the beach ... make sure it is slightly damp, and carefully sit in it, and then measure the distance between the deepest dents, where the sitbones were. Or if you've got one of those memory foam mattresses or pillows you might be able to get the same sort of effect.

Some bicycle shops offer sitbone measuring techniques.

I just rode a whole bunch of different saddles and discovered through that process that I preferred a saddle of a certain width and shape. I need a saddle that curves up in the back a bit. Before I ordered my Brooks, I measured all the saddles I liked (on all my different bicycles) and discovered that they were all about the same width. The Brooks B-17 mens was, if I recall correctly, a touch wider, but I figured that would probably be OK. But I didn't think I'd like the additional width of the women's saddle.

Oh one other way is a two person job. She can locate her sitbones by feel, but would need another person to measure the distance between them.