Women's vs. men's saddles

05-20-2004, 06:51 PM

I happen to live in an area where there are no bike shops with a good
selection of saddles nearby. What they have is little more than what you'll
find at Dunham's.

I need a new saddle as the "C9" saddle that I bought at one of the local
shops a couple of years ago is wearing out (the lycra is wearing through - I
ride almost 20 miles a day in good weather). I don't want another lycra
saddle for this reason and I am not crazy about vinyl (no breathability). I
think I want leather which no local shop sells at all. Been looking at the
Terry Liberators on-line at Performance and Nashbar. Also read reviews at
MtbReview. Seem like a good choice.

In my on-line shopping I noticed that sometimes Performance or Nashbar will
have the woman's version of a saddle on sale for about 1/3 less than the
men's version. Far as I can tell, the women's saddles are slightly shorter
and slightly wider. Supposedly the width is to accomodate the wider
hip-bones of women vs. men. Problem with that is that I'm sure men and women
hip-bone widths overlap since there humans have an enormous range of body
sizes within each sex. Makes me think that this men's vs. women's saddle
thing is more marketing than anything else and I should just buy whatever is
cheaper in a given line. (Hell, we neanthertal men are supposed to get in
touch with their "feminine side" anyway, right?)

What say you all?

- nopcbs