Not to derail the topic, but in case there are new riders (like I was just last summer) reading this thread, I would like to provide the following advice: Assuming your bike and cockpit are set up correctly, before you blame the saddle for soreness, make sure you get your body used to riding. It took me many rides over a period of a couple weeks to build up my body to where the soreness went away. The next thing is the rash, which can be helped significantly by using good well fitting chamois riding shorts. I then found the best thing for comfort was to measure my sit bones and get a saddle that fit. It turned out that the main cause of rash was a saddle that was too narrow. Once I installed the proper width saddle life is great. I don’t think you need to spend a lot of money to be happy, just make sure it fits. I have a WTB Rocket on my starter XC bike, and a WTB Pure V Comp on my Trail bike. No complaints.