Selle Anatomica X2

I am at 100,000 miles riding on the bike. That's a lot of time riding. I have used many saddles and most of them were very good but I have had a persistent problem with saddle discomfort. All my saddles were fine for 30 miles, 40 miles or even 50 miles, but after that there were varying degrees of discomfort, sometimes leading to a shortening of the ride. All my saddles said they were the most comfortable money could buy, so did this one. The difference is that the Selle Anatomica X2 actually turned out to be the most comfortable saddle money could buy.When I received it, I was skeptical. It was very simple. A couple of thick layers of leather and no padding. I learned a long time back that padding is not the most important variable by far - but no padding? I put it on and went for a ride. From the very start it felt great. I said to myself: "the test comes at 40 miles. If it feels the same after that I will be impressed." I was impressed. Now after ten, 60 - 70 mile rides, I am even more impressed. There has been no saddle discomfort - more than that, it actually feels comfortable, not merely tolerable. So there you have it. What more can be said. I don't know what you need if you are racing, or want to go 30 mph for hours, but that's not what I do. I go very long distances - 100 - 200 miles are my specialty. I think this saddle will stand up to those miles as well as it has in my current trialsThere is definitely a PR problem with this saddle and the company. It doesn't show up very often in the "Best Saddles Reviews" so most people don't know about it. I didn't know. I don't know what the makers have done, but it works. Maybe it is black magic. Maybe their next saddle will turn headwinds around.

Updade: received a replacement saddle for the squeaky original one. Used this saddle almost exclusively for Zwift riding, so no abuse on the saddle whatsoever. I found this saddle to be uncomfortbale, I tried retensioning, I tried raising the nose of the saddle up a bit, I tried repositioning the rails on the saddle mount. Nothing worked. To me, and maybe I'm the exception, this saddle was the most labor intensive for zero gain endeavor I have encountered in my biking experience.To top it off, as I was removing the saddle to replace it, I notice one of the silver rivets had mysteriously fallen off. Not quality in my opinion.Now I have a saddle on a shelf, anyone want to buy it?Comfortable saddle bit squeaks intolerably. Will try re-tensioning and allow a 500 mile break in period. If it still persists in creaking, I’ll have to return it.I really hope it quiets down.Some users on the web stated that there is a rubber gasket produced on the newer saddles that dampens the noise. My saddle had no gasket.sent an email to company, awaiting reply.

My biggest issue with every cut out style saddle that I have ridden before is that my sit bones end up bruised and sore after any ride over 10–15 miles. After trying several different saddles, I decided to fork over the cash and give leather a try. I’m 135 lbs, so the X-2 seemed to be the correct saddle for my weight.First thoughts: If you’re into the leather saddle look, this is a beautiful saddle. Upon mounting it on my gravel bike, it took me some time to get it adjusted properly. I found that with the seat level, I immediately slid forward from where I felt like I should be sitting and seemingly dropped into a dip, which painfully crushed my prostate between the saddle and my pubic bone. Perhaps this dip is the “hammock“ that some reviewers have mentioned, but while I felt locked in, it was too painful to tolerate. Eventually, I found that positioning the nose slightly higher than the tail, I could keep myself from sliding forward.I used the saddle for 2 rides: 20+ miles with 4k ft of vert and 40+ miles with 6k ft of vert. Both rides were a mix of surfaces including pavement, gravel, rough fire roads, and single track. I did not have a bit of tenderness around my sit bones after either ride with this saddle, which I find to be borderline miraculous! If the story stopped here, I would say this saddle deserves 5 stars and is worth every penny of the rather steep price. Unfortunately, I felt like I had to maintain constant pressure on my handlebars, essentially pushing myself backwards, to prevent dropping into the aforementioned prostate-crushing torture hammock. After 2 rides and many adjustments, I gave up hope that I could find a way to make this saddle work.One additional note, the saddle started off completely completely silent, but after 10 to 15 miles, I started to notice a little bit of creak and rattle which seem to be coming from under the nose of the saddle. This continued to get worse the more I used it, however, I could have put up with this annoyance had the saddle not been so darn uncomfortable. Some folks might not have the same issue I did, in which case you might find this to be a fantastic saddle. For me, however, it’s a hard pass.

After turning 60 years old and not cycling for a long time, I began road bike riding again about 18 months ago. In the first year I went through a half dozen Italian style saddles and a Brooks B17 hoping to find a tolerable saddle, but in each case I was sore with undercarriage pain after 10 miles and really sore after 30 miles, with the Brooks being the least painful. I was basically managing misery on every single ride, my high end cycling shorts not helping either.I read about the Selle Anatomica and bought one to try on my Trek Domane. After the first 15 mile ride, no pain at all. I was almost shocked. I then bought a second one for my Domane+ ebike, and have since ridden about 2,000 miles on the two seats in the last 6 months.Result: WOW! This seat has transformed my bicycle riding. I don't even feel 30 mile rides down below any more, and I am now averaging around 100 miles per week without issue. I did a 74 mile ride a couple of weeks ago with very little discomfort, and was fine for a 20k ride the morning after.