Thought I’d put a plug in for my favorite commuter saddle, the Forté Classic, available at Performance Bike for around $40-50. I bought one of these in 2002 when I initially bought my road bike, because the racing saddle that came with it wasn’t working for me. The Forté Classic seems “just right” in almost every aspect – it’s inexpensive, not too hard, not too soft, not too wide, not too thin, and reasonably light. I find it very comfortable, and it’s still in good shape 8 years later after countless rides in all sorts of weather. I just picked up another one for my second bike, and will likely get one for my mountain bike as well. I’ve never been 100% happy with the saddles on either of those bikes, and I figure I’ll just go with something I know will work for me. The 2010 Classic has slightly different logo design, but other than that, it looks like the same saddle.
I’ve been dialing-in the fit on my second bike, a Masi Speciale Fixed, for awhile now, and I think it’s getting close. So far I’ve raised the bars around 1/4″ by rearranging the head tube spacers; moved the saddle back around 3/4″; and replaced the stock saddle with a Forté Classic. It’s now much more comfortable for me than it was this past summer. The bullhorn bars are at just about the perfect height for standing climbs. The only thing I’m missing is a comfortable upright sitting position. When I’m sitting upright, I still feel like the reach to the bars is a little too far. It seems to me I can remedy this by getting an extender to raise the bars another couple inches, and then switching to a set of mustache bars. My hope is that the “drop” on the mustache bars would put the bar ends at roughly the same height as the bullhorns on my current bars, while the middle of the bars would be higher for more comfortable upright riding. We’ll see how that works out.