Realise this is very subjective, but am currently using a 10 year old selle italia flite ti on a road bike (has absolutely no padding left), and it begins to get a bit uncomfy after 40-50 miles. The shape is fine, just the lack of padding is an issue.

Can anyone recommend which flite (ideally gel) they find comfiest? Have never ridden with a saddle with a groove – worth a go – or has anyone found these difficult to get along with opposed to the traditional flite shape?

Cheers in advance

I love flite saddles, but have never got on with a gel or groove one; they have hard spots in funny places. I think you're best off trying to find a good condition S/H or NOS one.

There's always a few Flite saddles for sale on RetroBike. Going rate for a good condition one is £30-£40.

I think they did a re-issue recently of the Flite's, priced around £80.

Thanks guys.. admittedly the Flite has lost it's padding over the last few years, but was ideally after something with a bit more padding than the classic flite. Any suggestions for something Flite shaped but with a fair bit of padding (if that's possible?!)

I've definitley got a flite shaped arse – got em on most of my MTBs, my pompino came with one of these planet X jobs, has more padding and is damned comfy, I've not done massive rides on it but at only £15 for cro mo version maybe worth a punt.

Thanks for the advice Donk, have bought one of those.. may well end on ebay after a couple of rides, but worth a try.

More options:

I used to have a flite shaped arse too. I currently find specialized alias's v comfy on the road. Has more padding than the toupe, without being an absurd sofa.

Many people rave about fisik saddles if you are a flite veteran. I found them all awful, apart from the touring-esque nisene, which is OK, but not quite as good as the new alias.

I swear by charge spoons on the mtbs, a bit lardy and grippy for road, they've just released the 'knife' but I've not had chance to try one.

I'd be tempted to try a Knife, since teh Spoon is a great all-day mtb saddle.

Having said that, the Flite is the definitive saddle, in my view, so Maybe a new one plus get some shorts with better padding.

Had a flite on my road bike. Got a flite gel for the mountain bike, thinking the padding couldn't be a bad thing. Never quite got comfortable with the gel version and the standard one is now on the mountain bike, where it gets the most use.

I have an old flite on an MTB, the only other saddle I've found as comfy is a Fizik Gobi.

Brooks B17 narrow is Flite shaped (no padding, obviously). I have two Flites that I love, but the Brooks is a direct swap if you can stand the weight increase and breaking in issues 😉

regards,
Daren

Second the Charge Knife. After 18 years of riding on Flites, I finally conceded that my last one was falling to bits and bought a Charge. It's ace – I hardly know it's there.