The first thing fair-weather cyclists do in the spring is to jump on their creaking rides and go for a spin. The second thing they do is hobble to the local bike shop and ask the sales clerk for a bigger, softer saddle to ease the chafing on their sore butts.
This is the last thing they should do.
Comfy seats are those that support the "sit bones," and that don't rub you anywhere else. Padded seats rub everywhere else, causing saddle sores. Brooks leather saddles are the choice of touring cyclist for this reason, but many others find them too heavy, too old-fashioned in style, or too susceptible to rain.
Enter the Fizik Kurve, a high-tech Brooks. Like the Brooks, it consists of a metal frame (aluminum in this case) and a suspended hammock-like layer above. Unlike the Brooks, the Kurve is made from high-tech composites.
The seat is suspended across the frame, and bends when you sit on it. This absorbs bumps and provides some perceived softness. Like Brooks higher-end saddles, the sides are cut away so there's nothing left to chafe your thighs.
The tightness of the Brooks can be tuned by adjusting a bolt in its nose. This is a one-way operation, though, and is really for taking up slack as the seat ages and stretches. The Kurve instead comes with two "tuners," blocks which can be swapped into the nose to give a tighter or looser seat.
The Kurve comes in three models: the Snake, Chameleon and the Bull. All cost $1 per gram, or 220 grams and $220 (the top-of-the-line Brooks B15 Titanium weighs 370 grams).
Fizik Kurve product page [Fizik via BikeHugger]
