looking for a saddle for my daughter’s new bike.
She will be using it for XC race and training.

There are many saddles about for ~£20 that are decent, but heavy at ~300g.
To get lighter you seem to need to spend >£100.

Anything inbetween in cost and weight?
She has used Selle Italia X1 lady flow and charge ladle before, and both seemed to fit OK, so something in the 140mm width region

SDG and Fizik both do some options for about £50 (in sale on wiggle) that weigh low 200s. Surely for XC racing and training the additional weight will quickly be insignificant compared to the mud stuck to the bike?

I have a spare Specialized Jett 143 that has Ti rails and carbon reinforcing that’s for sale £25 posted

Same as this on here

fionap – if you go by that measure, might as well use a halfords 100 quid special to race on, no real differnece with a bit of mud…

Tracey, I will take a look and see. We have a big spec shop close to us so I should take her to get measured properly to ensure the 143 is correct (I think it is)

I got a selle Italia diva gel inCRC last week for about £50. It weighs 255g and I’ve out it on my superfly. Not had a proper run on it yet but they get very good reviews.

fionap – if you go by that measure, might as well use a halfords 100 quid special to race on, no real differnece with a bit of mud…

Not exactly the same thing. I was going to do a classic ‘recommend what you have’ on the SDG Allure (£50-ish, ti rails etc) but when I checked it was actually 285g. I’ve never considered it to be a “heavy” saddle but then I don’t do serious racing and I’ve never even considered putting my bike on the scales.

I’ve ridden with a Ladle and found it good, whereas I just can’t get on with any of the Spesh lady saddles.

fionap – sorry, I re-read my comment and it was a bit out of order.
I’m spending a serious amount of cash on the bike and so want it to be as light as possible.
It will come with a mans saddle that is relatively cheap, but will also be quite light.
I’m just annoyed that there are no reasonably priced ladies saddles compared to mens.
Options seem to be the selle italia x1 lady which is 260g and only £15 quid. all the mid range ones up to about £70 seem to be the same weight, and it’s only when you go above about £80 does the weight drop to ~200g.

No worries, buying womens saddles is incredibly annoying. Even the biggest bike shops – including a massive Specialized-only showroom/store – that I tried didn’t have any on bikes that could be sat on and ‘tested’. One width in one brand can still fit completely differently to the same width in another brand so it just becomes an expensive case of trial and error. Good luck with your search!

I found a selle italia sls lady for £30 from highonbikes.
A very good price for a saddle that is 214g, and she has used selle italia before so I know the shape and fit is ok.