New Selle Anatomica?
 

Looks Brooksish?
Seems like a great idea. Like combining a Cambium and a traditional leather top.
I am interested.

They were making saddles at the NAHBS SLC. Very nice people. Cool product too. It was really my first time dealing with them. I wanted to switch the saddle I had on a bike to a leather one and I went to them cause they looked cool. retro-ish but modern-ish. And that's what I wanted on the commuter I made. I kept thinking about a Brooks but I wanted something different. I went with one of these.

My commuter made the final four draw which was cool.

I just got an email about that today. I have an "X" on one of my bikes and I 'think' I like it. There are some things I don't, though: my wife, eyeing it leaned up against the bookshelves, thinks it looks less classy than, say, the Specialized Phenom on the Pinarello. And I think the rails look and feel a little cheap compared to chromoly or Ti. And the damned thing is heavy.

But the copy in the email seems to indicate they're dealing with this: the stainless tubing in the new version purportely saves 150g, and the construction is 'modular,' which they say means you can replace a worn-out top on your own. The back part of the underframe(?) is cast aluminum. The pictures show a much prettier saddle than their old one, top and bottom. I'm intrigued.

Curious about a company called "Rivet." I clicked a link to them while researching handlebars on the Lovely Bicycle blog, was taken to a fancy website selling what looks to be a blatant knockoff of the anatomica. Meanwhile, SA seems to be a nice company: I had a question about my saddle a couple months ago, emailed them, and got a lovely reply from the owner of the company. Classy.

I saw Rivet at NAHBS. They make a nice looking saddle also. And they do SA cut out style saddles as well as traditional closed styles. They also make a leather bar tape that's crazy nice looking. I didn't know that till NAHBS. Not sure how any of these ride as I can't ride and only used closed shell saddles. But they do look nice.

I like their saddles so I may try one. Good for long rides.

Not a knockoff, exactly. IIRC the woman that makes the Rivet was the partner of the originator of the Sella Anatomica. When he died there were legal issues with his estate because they weren't married. The rights to the SA went to the current manufactures and the partner went on to develop the Rivet which supposedly was the planned improvement to his original saddle prior to his death.

My wife has the SA on two of her bikes, I've got a Rivet on one of mine. They're both good.

@stephenmarkley, @salesguy, @dave thompson, good things to hear about Rivet. I will dial down my unwarranted snark. Interesting to hear about the joint origin - and sad - to hear the involved parties couldn't find a way to move forward together. And good to hear that Rivet didn't jump on SA's bandwagon, but were doing their thing at the outset, too.

It could make for an interesting comparison, and good for us consumers, to see what each comes up with as they work off the original, good idea. Not like a Shimano vs. Campagnolo, rather more like Campagnolo vs. Campagnolo: small, innovative operations staffed by dedicated people.

Tom Milton, the founder of Selle Anatomica died in 2010. The legal battle between his partner and his legal heirs went on for several years. I think Rivet came into existence in 2012 when she lost the fight to keep the Sella Anatomica assets and design so she took what she said were Milton's ideas for future improvement to his design and began Rivet.

I think the development of Selle Anatomica is pretty mature, the basic idea has changed little. Rivet seems to be a little more progressive and have had new designs introduced in the past few years.

The one recurring issue with Selle Anatomica, even the X, which is reinforced for heavier riders, is excessive sag happening relatively soon requiring adjusting the tension bolt fairly often. They don't have near the lifespan of a Brooks. The new X-2 series seems address that problem with a replaceable leather seat.

I have a titanio x on my ecr. Dave is pretty spot on about having to tighten the bolt regularly. Nice long rails on the saddle allowing me to fit better on a smaller bike and pretty comfortable as well, but it's the heaviest saddle I've ever used.
I have plenty of Brooks saddles and they are still lighter and do not need to be tightened as often. Unfortunately they don't have as much room on the rails as the selle anatomica. The selle is also quite a bit wider. Glad to hear they are working on lightening them up and working out the tension issues.

glad they stoped calling it the titanio when there was no titanium to speak off and the saddle was like 500g.

Impressed how much they were able to shave, very comparable to other saddles in this range, maybe even lighter.

I had one a while ago, did not work for me, legs rubbed on the saddle (I bet they have fixed this problem). Also had a rivet briefly, very different saddle imo. Also was not my thing. My favorite leather saddle has to be the berthoud.

I've had a few SA's. Gave up on them because the leather stretched out way too fast. Have heard the same from a high mileage rando buddy.

Tai

Where do they list the saddle dimensions? I can't find it.

Looks like they took some design cues from Berthoud with the cantle.

I tried a Rivet Independence with the cutout. Nice saddle and nice lady (I dealt with her personally) but turns out the cutout isn't for me.

I've yet to try a Berthoud and was about to go for the titanium railed Aravis, on my next build but I've never been more comfortable than I am on a Brooks Pro. So when one came up on the PL classifieds I decided to stick with what works. If I wear it out I'll try the Berthoud or possibly this new SA (if dimensions are right for me).

Initially this company's MO was producing suspended leather saddles that were "broken in" out of the box. What you got was less than sturdy leather and I've seen many photos of them in full hammock mode as KidWok allueds to. Rivet improved this by using thicker leather, Berthoud style molded cantle as well as a synthetic material bonded to the underside of the leather to decrease stretching and add a water barrier.

I have both Selle Anatomica and Rivet. For me the Rivet works better and wears a lot better - it breaks in but so far hasn't noticeably deformed further (think it's about 4 years old now?)

Modifying a Selle Anatomica: Success(?!)
 

I took a chance wiith an SA during their winter sale, and initially was happy with it. I'd been on SMPs for a few years, then noticed some numbness coming back, urologist yelled at me, and I knew I had to mix things up. The SA seemed to do the trick: a totally different feel from the skinny saddles I was used, not pretty on my racy bike(s), but good for medium and long rides in a way the SMP wasn't (read, "not going going numb 'down there'").

Then the saddle began to trash my gear: as the saddle broke in, the wings began to flare, doing significant damage to a pair of (very) nice bibs to which I'd treated myself this winter during a sale. I fished around on Google and then wrote to SA. SA eventually wrote back and kindly offered to lace the saddle for me. I thought, "this can't be rocket science." I looked at pics of brooks saddles, carefully measured out a 'zone' for holes and then carefully drilled ten holes in each side of the saddle, and laced it up with a long waxed cotton shoe lace from the cobbler. It was really easy in retrospect.

The ride is different. At first, alarmingly different. But that is easing as this breaks into the new regime. Rode 54 fast miles yesterday and the saddle was comfortable, my nethers fine, and my bibs unscathed. I think this is a win.

I have no idea why I didn't think of doing this. I have an SA on the tandem which is flaring as you describe. I was going to transfer the skin from another SA which lived a very short life due to bent rails. I'll try your idea first.

I also have a Rivet on my Mini Velo which replaced the bent rail SA, I have a bit more confidence in it's construction.