Hardasses (firm saddles)

File this under the category of everything old is new again. While Sheldon Brown and most touring afficionados have long advocated the hard saddle, its popularity seems to come and go, with various forms of padded saddles always being more popular. It stands to reason that a spongy saddle will be more comfortable, but your perineum begs to differ. Anyway, I see the firm saddle as having three evolutions:

• The Leather Years
• In which gentleman, racers, and everybody rode a Brooks
• Which is now coming back in the form of a Brooks resurgence and with companies such as Selle Anatomica
  
• The Plastic Years
• In which cheap BMX saddles where made of hard plastic
• Which is now coming back when companies like Tioga start making high-zoot plastic saddles
  
• The Space Shuttle Material Years
• In which crazy Europeans are making saddles out of magnesium and carbon
• Which, at a cost of up to $450 a piece, can't last long

So, to review, the history of the bicycle saddle: