Carbon Saddle Advantage

Carbon rail seats do take a real small amount of road buzz off the butt, it does work better than a CF seat post unless you have a really long seat post otherwise a CF seat post used for vibration reduction is useless. It also may be roughly 10 grams or so less which is meaningless unless you're a weight weenie.

Personally, I don't think a carbon railed seat is worth the expense, but I'm not into having carbon everything, some people are due to the fad thing.

I totally agree with you!! Saddles are very very important! This is the one that I use and that I would suggest: http://www.fizik.it/saddles/road-saddles/arione-r3-kium/

But keep in mind that a saddle is so important not one particular brand and model will be suitable for ALL riders, what may work for one person won't work for another. You can narrow down your search for a comfortable saddle by measuring your sit bones, simply sit on a 1" thick or so styrofoam sheet or corrugated cardboard, feet flat on the floor and leaning only far enough forward you can rest your hands on your knees with your arms resting on your legs, stay seated for about a minute, then measure the distance from center to center of the indents and add 20 to 30 mm to that figure and find a seat that will fit that width. Some LBS's have devices to measure that for you and most don't charge to use it.

I too happen to like the Fizik and have two models that both serve me well, one is the Aliante Gamma that is on my newest bike, very comfortable saddle at least for me; and the other is a Vitesse I use on my camping road bike which is also comfortable but not as good as the Aliante Gamma. I only bought both of those because they were new bike turnouts, the Aliante cost me $30 and the Vitesse $24!!! Best money I ever spent on saddles!

I also have two Brooks models, a B17 and a Swift both with TI rails I got some years back when the cost was more reasonable, today I think they're way overpriced, but they are extremely comfortable saddles. I use the B17 on my touring bike and the Swift on another road bike that I don't use much anymore. I may transfer the Swift to the new bike when the Fizik wears out unless I find another great deal on a saddle.

What I said in an earlier post about CF rails applies to TI rails too, Ti rails are also noted for their vibration dampening qualities as well but CF may be a tad better in that department, but TI rails are more durable than CF rails. However I think that a lot of that dampening quality between the two is more mental than actual! A CF rail saddle cannot be put on just any seat post, the seat post has to have been made so has not to have the clamp damage the CF rails. I personally don't think CF rails are worth the expense for so little of a gain in either weight or probably no gain in dampening over a TI rail, and the potential of the clamp damaging the seat rail. Just an opinion.

As far as a carbon shell goes, again it all depends on the rider and what is comfortable for them. So to go on and on about a shell would be useless. I think the CF shell probably isn't a bad idea by any means, but if the saddle is just a bare CF shell with no seat cover I would think that would make a very slippery saddle to ride on which means constant readjusting your setting position to stay on the saddle correctly. If you're not racing professionally I don't see the point of one both from a usability standpoint as well as an expense standpoint. Again just an opinion.