Selle Italia

I was looking for a saddle with prominent cutout for an aggresive fit. Never having ridden a Selle Italia since the old Flite model (which I could NOT use for any duration, but dang, did it look cool!), it was a bit of a gamble. Pressure mapping shows high pressure under my sit bones, but it's even, and comfortable, and I have no complaints about the saddle in use. Yes, it is expensive, but it has a premium look and feel, and kind of the mid point in pricing now.

This one. This is the Coke Classic of saddles. Selle updated it, but customers demanded they rerelease the original. It was one of the early lightweight saddles, and still outperforms many more modern models - especially if you want to ride for hours without feeling like you've traded comfort for anything else. Plus, it has great lines to top it off. I tried others, always regretted it, always came back. So, great saddle + great price + great service = a great choice.

I have loved the SLR Boost saddles for a while and got tired of pressure washing my crotch with mud and sand in CX, so I snagged this. It fits the same as the SLR, still has a bit of center channel relief, but keeps the wheel spray out. Great for CX.

Unfortunately, it's super basic. Minimal padding, not a great long distance saddle, and frankly, overpriced compared to similar saddles from other brands. Great if you want the shape, but frustrating with how much it costs.

So according to Selle Italia, for my pelvis, the SLR or the Flite would be the optimal saddles for me. My saddle to bar drop is around 9cm as well, a standard race-y position

The Flite, testing both widths, was the worst saddle I have ever tried and the SLR was actually decent, but had some issues, felt I was sitting 'in' the saddle and not 'on' the saddle. For that reason, getting it setup was very difficult because in order to be comfortable i had to run a -4 deg saddle tilt, but because now I am sitting more on the nose i am getting saddle sores. With a -1 or -2 degree tilt I am sitting on more of the saddle in general, but the front of the saddle was holding me back from being able to rotate my pelvis forward and comfortably reach the handlebars. As a result regardless of what I tried I used the Novus just because it was 'good enough' compared to the other two.

Now comes the gen 4 SLR, while it is advertised as a refinement, but when you look at it side view compared to the gen 3 saddle it's shape is actually different, birds-eye view they look similar. I decided to give it a try and I will say, the saddle is quite incredible. The gen 3 saddle had a very contoured rear end, making you sit in the saddle more whereas the rear end of the saddle of the gen 4 saddle is much more flat, less contoured, so you don't sit in the saddle, but sit on the saddle. The center part of the saddle is a lot more flat, while the center part of the gen 3 saddle is more curved leading to the nose. It is as if they took the more flat nature of the Flite and mated it with the gen 3 SLR and created this new gen 4, and i love it.

When I was running the Novus Boost EVO, I had a overall saddle tilt of -6 degrees and with the gen 4 SLR, I can comfortably run this saddle at a -1 to -2 degree tilt. This does not seem to be a saddle to run with a lot of negative tilt, I think it's sweet spot will be somewhere between 0 to -2 degrees (this is across the entire saddle not the front half). I don't know why, but this saddle works incredibly well, especially given visually it looks like there is more cutout than saddle.

I went ahead and ordered another SLR carbon as well as an slr carbon 3d to try out. If you had issues with the gen 3 SLR and Selle Italia says for your pelvis the Flite or SLR would be best, I would give this a try. It is a significant improvement and I actually like the saddle rather than tolerate it.