Best women specific saddle?

trisports.com has a great demo program that lets you test saddles to find the right one for you. Local shops in your area likely have a similar program.

It's very rider-specific! Lots of people love the Cobb V-Flow, so I tried one. Made me go numb! 

I've ridden a men's Selle Italia for over 27 years.  When I first started riding they didn't make women's saddles.  Have had it on all my road bikes, tandem, and mountain bikes.  I recently treated myself to a new leather Diva model  http://www.selleitalia.com/se_it3/prodotti/road/pagina_diva/  a bit pricey, but you can find them discounted on line sites. Love it love it love it!  Felt comfortable the first day (although seemed a little wider than I'm use to and I'm a broad hipped women).

Definitely you have to try it and every saddle is personal. You also do have to "break in your butt" (or really your sit's bones), but it shouldn't be miserable to ride.  When you are building up your riding muscles, it shouldn't hurt on the initial ride, but when you try to ride the very next day, you may be a little tender.  Start with riding every other day. One thing I learned was to once I was conditioned to riding to never let enough time go by so that you had to "break it in again".  I took 5 weeks off after my first childbirth and 2 weeks off after my 2nd.

not a female but get an adamo sadle...you wont be sorry

Can I ask how that distance is measured?  I am too afraid to go into a shop and have someone measure '' there''        ( I am male, but I don't think it really makes a difference )

thank you

kelly t

They literally have a tool for this, that helps determine the saddle width for the rider.  Some shops have a Body Geometry Saddle measuring device.  It is literally a piece of cardboard over memory foam like material with a ruler.  There are countless ways I have heard of that you can do this at home!  It should be something that is part of a normal bike fitting.  

If the saddle is too small, it will force your sit bones over the edge, causing the "center" area to go numb. This is because your weight is not being supported by your sit bones.  If the saddle is too wide, it can cause chafing on the inner thighs. 

Not that hard. You can do it yourself.

Get a damp paper towel. Place it on HARD surface. (I used my marble table for this). Put a blank paper on top of it (lightly).

Get naked (no lie, it's more accurate this way!).

Sit down on the paper. roll over to side just a little bit, but not much.  Your knees should be a little bit higher (as if you're sitting on a shorter chair. If you're a little taller, then don't worry about it). 

Get up, put your undies/pants back on. You should see two wet circles. circle it with a permanent marker. 

You want to measure the CENTER of the two circles from each other, AND measure the inner edge, as well as outer edge just in case.  IN CM!

That way you know what to shop for!

Specialized makes saddles of varying width for women, which I really like. 133 (yes some people have that!), 143 and 153 cm. 

Or take the paper and place it on top of various saddles and see where your sitbones lie.

Now - you have to figure out if you prefer T shaped saddles or Pear shape saddles. I'm a T-Shape gal. The gradual edge to the nose bothers me, and I have to have a narrow nose.  After 5 different saddles, I am loving my Specialized Jett.

Specialized Jett and Ruby are popular saddles among the ladies, as well as Selle Italia Diva, or Ldy (they both are different. The Ldy version is wider).    These are specifically for road bikes.

Good luck!