Long ride comfort advice needed

Saddles are very subjective. What you must do is not put up with pressure on your perenium or central part of your under carriage. Get a saddle with a deep channel or a nose less saddle so your weight is placed on your sit bones. Build up endurance steadily, use creams aswell. It took me 300 or so miles to adjust to my Adamo saddle doing lots of 20-30 mile rides. Then all of a sudden I was able to ride for 5 hours+ get off the bike and feel like I hadn't been riding. That is a sign of a comfy saddle setup. There are so many other aspects to long distance comfort and it will cost a little adjusting/replacing items to get the right position.

You mention what you are planning, but not the issues that lead you to think 2 set of shorts will help. Get your sit bones measured and THEN start looking at saddles. Ended up with a Specialized saddle on a C'dale after a full on bike fit. I though the seat was crap as it did not look right, but it works really well. Narrower is not always better.

So expensive saddles not always better. I get on very well with the poor mans Airone (Planet X team) up to 200km and they cost about £25. Most saddles are made by company called Velo anyway. Anything over 200km I get out the Brooks B17. They feel a little weird at first as they don't have cut outs but then... they just get better and better. But I have toured on the PX saddle, 7 days at 70-90 miles a day mostly riding in merino boxers and normal shorts and been fine. I must have a tough old butt! Brooks are very tolerant of bad/cheap shorts, it just doesn't seem to matter much what you wear with them.

Then again I've tried supposedly comfy saddles and found them torture - the new flite shape with all the gels and cut outs.... yuk.

Well regarded comfy saddles in general: Old regal shape (not new), Brooks B17, Charge Spoon for cheap plastic. The new Brooks Cadrium - I have one and it seems more comfy than the PX but lasts about the same before getting irritating. If you are not intending to do over a 100 miles in a day then they would be a good choice too I think.

Totally second the idea of buying cheap saddles off ebay (or bikeradar for-sale forum) and giving them a go.

Sudocreme - had plenty left post baby and now use that occasionally. Cheap and good.

Turn up to an Audax and you'll notice a very large proportion of bikes with leather saddles. These guys go for leather for a reason and it's not because they're all hipsters. I'm not saying a modern saddle isn't as good, I guess it's just easier to get a comfy fit with leather.

Perhaps counter-intuitively I would say try not to dawdle.

I was nervous about my ability to complete my first century so set off at a very sedate pace. The result was a very long day in the saddle and a certain amount of discomfort. Taking breaks off of the bike is a good idea but while you are on it try to make reasonable progress (without going mad) to reduce the length of time that you are sitting on your soft bits each day.

I don't know what your build is so perhaps not relevant but if you are carrying any extra weight you will doubtless be more comfortable if you can lose some of it.

Well I don't quite do the endurance riding that CH does (bravo, by the way!), but I found that on my longest ride - over 10 hrs, the excessively padded shorts I had caused problems of bunching and pressure in areas they weren't supposed to!

Others are quite right - the body does adapt, and with the right saddle and shorts other parts of your body will probably start complaining way before your butt does

FWIW I found a fairly low density padded saddle but with a flexible hull the best solution + chamois cream + decent shorts that fit with a fairly dense, well-shaped pad

Good shorts + cream + lots of miles in your butt + perfect bike fit = comfort

Since you are on a budget I have a worthwhile comment. And by the way I have undergone 2 operations to remove sebaceous cysts in 3 years - I enjoy (or want enjoy) long rides up to 1000k+.

Chamois cream is great in principal but anything with "Chamois" written on it is too expensive. I use gobs of thick cheap skin creme now (from U.S. CVS drug store, the CVS version of Eucerine) - and I mean a couple of fistfuls each ride! Volume counts. For a really long ride I will sometimes mix in a little antiseptic (like Neosporin) as well. Finally I finish of by rubbing in a dab of alcohol which helps dissolve the creme and lets it penetrate the skin.

Furthermore I always shower immediately before (and of course after) a ride, using a skin friendly soap - the antiseptic soaps actually contain chemicals which stressed my skin and made matters worse.

I find for long rides that a leather hammock style saddle with a split in it to be indispensable. E.g., Rivet, Sella Anatomica, some Brooks models.

Just completed a double century (326 km) with ~6000 meters of climbing 2 days ago, and had a very happy bottom and because of that a very happy ride.

Echo everything said above (cream, good shorts, right saddle, rests).

Plus also, get some long rides in. Your body itself will adapt. You may remember when you first started back on the road bike a year ago, that you were a bit sore after fairly short rides for the first few days, but then your body got used to it. Same thing here, albeit with slower progress!

Long distance ride comfort seems to be an extremely personal affair and one of real trial and error at that. I went through three different manufacturers/styles of cycling shorts (Bib shorts, Endura and Giant standard shorts) before finding that Bontrager standard shorts work the best for me. I then had to go through even more saddles. I tried four of the Bontrager range, then the standard Fizik Aliante, before finally finding that the Fizik Aliante VS-X (with very large relief channel) seems to suit better than any other. Best advice for saddles would be to go second-hand off eBay. I lost a good 40% off the new price of the four Bontragers selling them on via eBay. Best wishes for a less prolonged and costly search.

I just bought some Morvelo Unity shorts (they won a review of 15 or so bib shorts recently as the most comfy) for about £50 including delivery from Wiggle in the sale. OK, so what one reviewer may finds comfy another may find murder, but so far so good. I'm hoping they work for me on a 16+ ride. That and the sudocrem...

It sounds like you've got a fair bit of time to play with, so might I be blasphemous and advise that you dismount for a bite to eat once in a while (you might be doing this a lot already)? It doesn't take too long for things to more-or-less get back into place.

Since getting into the road racing side of things, I've realised I've become a bit too focused on treating every A to B goal as a bit of an extended Time Trial, with food only really eaten on the bike, which is kind of sad... It you're having a day out, you may as well admire a few of the places you pass, as well as let your backside recover.

Apart from that; having well-suited saddle and decent shorts are helpful, and changing positions up is a must (there's no one magical position that should carry you painlessly and efficiently from start to finish) - it's surprising how dependably you can progress, even on the tops. Getting out of the saddle without blowing your energy reserves should also be a really useful skill.

Anyway... good luck!

Pre-ride chamois cream!

I've only ever done this once, about 400 miles into a 24. I was desperate! It worked for about 15 miles before things got just as bad. So it's not advisable.

The trick for long distance riding is to keep everything clean and antiseptic. So apply lots of Sudocrem (or equivalent) and make sure you wash everything thoroughly after each day's riding.

Ohhh jeez no, I can't imagine anything worse.
I have unpadded thermal 3/4 lengths which I wear over my bib shorts occasionally and just that extra material makes the saddle feel strange and horrid. Two lots of pad would be terrible.

As you mentioned find yourself some decent bib shorts on a saddle which fits you.

Nah I wouldn't ever do this, it would get sweaty and also they would slide over, causing friction rubs......
Just make sure your saddle fits and wear clean bibs each day