Which Brooks saddle?

On Feb 28, 9:37 pm, Michael Press wrote:
In article ,
John Forrest Tomlinson wrote:

On Sat, 28 Feb 2009 05:32:58 -0800 (PST), "P. Chisholm"
wrote:

+2. I tried 2 Brooks saddles. One of the zillion dollar limited
edition and numbered titanium Swallow and also a Swift. I got them
because of their looks and 'religion'. I tried and tried to use them,
break them in, adjust them, screw with them and didn't find true
happiness about Brooks until I sold them.

I thought you had to ride a Brooks for a decade or two, or at least
five years, before it would be broken in for you and feel comfortable.
You shouldn't bad mouth the saddle just because you can't make a
*real* committment.

You repeat a well-worn and incorrect tale. I ride stretched
leather saddles. A brand new saddle is comfortable from
the moment I first use it. Hence, the statement that a
stretched leather saddle needs breaking in is not always
true. Categorical statements about what saddle is best
serve nobody well.

Indeed.

I don't prefer Brooks now, but I rode them for years and can attest
that they should be comfy and feel good after the first few hours of
use. They should fit out of the box fine other than simply feeling
hard like a pair of shoes that just need a couple miles to break in.
If they don't work out the first couple days, they never will.

In my opinion, a Brooks is never as comfortable as it is in the first
week you ride it. Exception being the Pro, which has thicker leather,
so doesn't suffer the downhill march as fast.

On Feb 28, 10:47*am, John Forrest Tomlinson
wrote:
On Sat, 28 Feb 2009 05:32:58 -0800 (PST), "P. Chisholm"

wrote:
+2. I tried 2 Brooks saddles. One of the zillion dollar limited
edition and numbered titanium Swallow and also a Swift. I got them
because of their looks and 'religion'. I tried and tried to use them,
break them in, adjust them, screw with them and didn't find true
happiness about Brooks until I sold them.

I thought you had to ride a Brooks for a decade or two, or at least
five years, before it would be broken in for you and feel comfortable.
You shouldn't bad mouth the saddle just because you can't make a
*real* committment.

tee hee

In article
,
landotter wrote:

On Feb 28, 9:37 pm, Michael Press wrote:
In article ,
John Forrest Tomlinson wrote:

On Sat, 28 Feb 2009 05:32:58 -0800 (PST), "P. Chisholm"
wrote:

+2. I tried 2 Brooks saddles. One of the zillion dollar limited
edition and numbered titanium Swallow and also a Swift. I got them
because of their looks and 'religion'. I tried and tried to use them,
break them in, adjust them, screw with them and didn't find true
happiness about Brooks until I sold them.

I thought you had to ride a Brooks for a decade or two, or at least
five years, before it would be broken in for you and feel comfortable.
You shouldn't bad mouth the saddle just because you can't make a
*real* committment.

You repeat a well-worn and incorrect tale. I ride stretched
leather saddles. A brand new saddle is comfortable from
the moment I first use it. Hence, the statement that a
stretched leather saddle needs breaking in is not always
true. Categorical statements about what saddle is best
serve nobody well.

Indeed.

I don't prefer Brooks now, but I rode them for years and can attest
that they should be comfy and feel good after the first few hours of
use. They should fit out of the box fine other than simply feeling
hard like a pair of shoes that just need a couple miles to break in.
If they don't work out the first couple days, they never will.

In my opinion, a Brooks is never as comfortable as it is in the first
week you ride it. Exception being the Pro, which has thicker leather,
so doesn't suffer the downhill march as fast.

That must be the secret to my success: always run the Brooks pro.

--
Michael Press

On Sat, 28 Feb 2009 22:47:55 -0500, Kenneth wrote:

On Sun, 01 Mar 2009 00:30:58 +0000, Phil W Lee
phil(at)lee-family(dot)me(dot)uk wrote:

If you want to make leather pliable, you need to use oil, not water.
Water will drive the natural oils out of the leather and make it hard,
so it's more likely to crack.

I am not making any suggestions about how best to break in a Brooks
saddle, but...

With your comments above, you are simply incorrect:

In fact, in their process of manufacture, Brooks saddles are molded to
shape originally by wetting them. When they dry, they retain the shape
of the mold.

No "natural oils" are driven off by wetting the leather. Those were all
removed in the tanning process. In a sense, that's what leather is -
animal skin, without the oils.

Indeed, any leather can crack if it is flexed while it is too dry, and
that is the reason that oils of various types are often added after the
leather item is made. Again, that's what they do when they make a Brooks
saddle.

All the best,

It's why cows don't crack in the rain.

Which Brooks model would be advisable for a guy who weighs 215 pounds?
Should I prefer one of the models with helical springs at the back?

Would one of the "aged" models give me a headstart on comfort.

General advice and personal anecdotes equally welcome.

Andre Jute
Brooks saddle going onto this bike:
*http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/Andre%20Jute's%20Utopia%20Kranich....

I didn't take the time to read every reply, so I don't know if anyone
mentioned another leather saddle brand: Selle An-Atomica.

Like a number of older guys, I have a slightly enlarged prostate. I
purchased a Brooks B-17 and while it was comfortable under the sit
bones, it hurt too much under the prostate to keep riding it in the
hopes that it would eventually break in. An LBS employee mentioned
the Selle An-Atomica, and despite the relatively high price ($160ish,
IIRC) I took the chance and ordered the Titanico model. Since I weigh
in around 190 lbs, I got it with the Clydesdale leather laminate.
Through a few hundred miles so far, I've been very happy with it.

If you want leather and the Brooks style but need the soft tissue
relief, take a look.

landotter wrote:
On Feb 26, 10:04 pm, Andre Jute wrote:
A writer sits all day. My bum gets awfully tired. When I go on my
bike, I want my bum soothed, or at least not further bruised. I'm
thinking of getting a Brooks saddle to replace my Cheeko 90, which is
getting a bit tacky. (The alternative is to recover the Cheeko 90 in
honey leather of which I have plenty, though I don't know how it will
stand up to weather as it is off indoor Swedish furniture we trashed
so I could use the seasoned wood for my geribike experiments.)

I ride an hour a day, two hours a day for longer rides, never more.
Total mileage in the order of 2000m/3200km per year, creeping up
slowly.

Which Brooks model would be advisable for a guy who weighs 215 pounds?

Should I prefer one of the models with helical springs at the back?

Would one of the "aged" models give me a headstart on comfort.


You should get the color you find most pleasing--because you'll be
thinking and obsessing about it all the time as you slip forwards and
back, adjusting tilt, and driving yourself mad with saddle futzery.

How come? I had Brooks Pro for many years and it was a peffect saddle. I
did not experienced problem you described at all.


Or, you could just get a proper modern saddle with a nylon shell,
adjust it dead level, and never think about it again.


'Proper modern saddle' is a 'dead saddle' to me ;-)


--
PoZdR
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++
"More experienced cyclists learn to "get light"
for a fraction of a second while going over rough
patches; newbies tend to sit harder on the saddle,
increasing the risk of pinch flats."
Sheldon Brown: 1944 - 2008
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++

P. Chisholm wrote:
On Feb 27, 12:16 pm, Andrew Price wrote:
On Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:46:59 -0800 (PST), landotter

wrote:
If you can't get
your Brook saddle in the correct position then you are incompetent.
Spoken like a religionist. The most logical reason for a Brooks being
uncomfortable is the poor design. Slip down,so you angle it up, when
you angle it up, it presses your bits.
Indeed. Been there, done that. The best thing I ever did was throw
out the Brooks saddles and replace them with a Selle Italia SLR-135 on
one bike and a Fizik Arione on the other. Never looked back.

+2. I tried 2 Brooks saddles. One of the zillion dollar limited
edition and numbered titanium Swallow and also a Swift. I got them
because of their looks and 'religion'. I tried and tried to use them,
break them in, adjust them, screw with them and didn't find true
happiness about Brooks until I sold them. They work for some, they do
not for others. YMMV but a panacea for a comfy ride in all cases they
are not.

SSM Rolls, no complaints....

You started from wrong models.

--
PoZdR
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++
"More experienced cyclists learn to "get light"
for a fraction of a second while going over rough
patches; newbies tend to sit harder on the saddle,
increasing the risk of pinch flats."
Sheldon Brown: 1944 - 2008
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++

Per Andre Jute:
I ride an hour a day, two hours a day for longer rides, never more.
Total mileage in the order of 2000m/3200km per year, creeping up
slowly.

Which Brooks model would be advisable for a guy who weighs 215 pounds?

You need to determine your ichial tuberosity spacing before
making a choice.

Sit on a block of styrofoam or even a sheet of paper on a fairly
soft rug until you can see the two dents.

Center-to-center distance between the dents will help pare down
the saddle choices.


Should I prefer one of the models with helical springs at the back?

I use both, but am partial to un-sprung combined with a sus post
because of the greater durability off-road.

Springs are 100% adequate for road use. The B-72's very small
springs are my favorite, but they do tend to break with too many
bumps, as in off-road use.

Would one of the "aged" models give me a headstart on comfort.

In my experience, no. They're all pretty good right out of the
box unless you get one with extra-hard leather. I buy from a
place that lets me return a saddle if I don't like it and have
had to return one out of about a half-dozen that I've bought so
far.

If you settle on a B-17, ping me. I've got a couple hanging on
the wall since I went to a wider saddle.
--
Pete (Broad Butt) Cresswell

Per Andre Jute:
I also want springing front and rear.

I'd consider a sus post instead. Brooks are making the 210 with
solid rails now. I think you'd get substantially lower weight.
--
PeteCresswell

On Mar 2, 12:49*am, wrote:
Which Brooks model would be advisable for a guy who weighs 215 pounds?
Should I prefer one of the models with helical springs at the back?

Would one of the "aged" models give me a headstart on comfort.

General advice and personal anecdotes equally welcome.

Andre Jute
Brooks saddle going onto this bike:
*http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/Andre%20Jute's%20Utopia%20Kranich...

I didn't take the time to read every reply, so I don't know if anyone
mentioned another leather saddle brand: Selle An-Atomica.

Like a number of older guys, I have a slightly enlarged prostate. *I
purchased a Brooks B-17 and while it was comfortable under the sit
bones, it hurt too much under the prostate to keep riding it in the
hopes that it would eventually break in. *An LBS employee mentioned
the Selle An-Atomica, and despite the relatively high price ($160ish,
IIRC) I took the chance and ordered the Titanico model. *Since I weigh
in around 190 lbs, I got it with the Clydesdale leather laminate.
Through a few hundred miles so far, I've been very happy with it.

If you want leather and the Brooks style but need the soft tissue
relief, take a look.

Thanks for the info. I had a good read but I wasn't ever going to
order a 170mm wide saddle of any description for that price just for
an experiment; I'm not a racer or even a partifularly athletic
cyclist; I just ride to work up a sweat and keep my heart pumping. I'm
not in trouble with my prostrate (yet).

It is merely that I didn't like conventional saddes and was happy for
five years with a Cheeko90 seat, now showing a bit of wear, which I
took from bike to bike. Recently I rode a couple of times on some good
Italian gel saddles I also have, and the sky didn't fall in. So I
thought that, as an alternative to getting the Cheeko recovered, I'd
try the famous Brooks (don't particularly remember the names of the
leather saddles of my youth so this may or may not be my first Brooks)
and see how it works out. I ordered a Brook B73 before I saw your
post.

Thanks for taking the time to share.

Andre Jute
Visit Jute on Bicycles at
http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/...20CYCLING.html