$6 of pure bike saddle heaven!

Laos does not have a lot of bike shops. There are even fewer bike shops as we know them in the US or the UK. Most people if they have a bike problem will travel over to Thailand for a day and get spares and workamnship out of the country.
There are plenty of shops selling bikes - but these are of the lower end Thai and Chinese commuter bikes, and they do not sell spares.
My seat has been killing me, I had started with putting one flip flop on it, and then it become two, then three, and then the flip flops started wearing out.
I tried Lydie's lady-specific saddle which was a great improvement - but I felt guilty about her having to use my old terrible saddle.

The old saddle, with flip flop cushioning

And then something wonderful happened. As we were riding into Thakhek, Laos we started to see kids riding fixies rather than the standard Thai Turbo-brand bikes. The area is very flat and there is a real bike culture there.

We found several bike shops selling fixies in all colours of the rainbow. And best of all there was a bucket of saddles in the back of the shop. Nasty, cheap, ugly, wonderful, beautiful saddles. Literally, the only saddles I had seen for sale in all of Laos.

A bike shop in Laos!!

I dug and I explored in that box, long and hard. Eventually I decided on a what Lydie has described as the biggest saddle she has ever seen. Poorly made, plasticky, with a cut out down the middle and some rudimentary springs at the back.

And the price - a magical 45,000 Kip - that's under $6 - NICE!

My new saddle! Huuuuge.

I was fearful as I removed the flip flop saddle off and put this new one on - but it has been amazing. It has revolutionized my riding life. I still get discomfort, but it starts later - after about 15-20 km, and doesn't reach that level of intensity which was forcing me to change my position every minute, and making the cycling a misery!

Long may it last.

In fact - if I could, I would happily buy a new saddle at $6 every day if I could guarantee this level of cycling happiness - it would be worth it!

So, my tips for cycle touring saddles:
     Make it big
     Make it springy
     Make it with a central cut out