Brooks Saddles

[xeney]

Hey, you posted those photos on another forum yesterday, didn't you? I was showing them to my husband to convince him that a Brooks would not look stupid on his carbon fiber bike, because it looks so pretty on yours! But then he sat on the Team Pro I was trying to give him, and he said something to the effect of, "Hey, this Kool-Aid tastes funny," and he is not putting a Brooks on a road bike any time soon. Heh.

In happier news, I adjusted the Team Pro on my bike yesterday, getting it more cleanly level, and then rode for an hour on the trainer. It is a very hard saddle but when it's level I am not riding the rivets, so to speak. I had no pain at all, and I wasn't wearing bike shorts. No pain this morning, either. Can't say that for my Butterfly after an hour on the trainer.

I'm going to try it on the road this weekend. If it doesn't work out I will give up then while I can still sell it on eBay as a nearly-new saddle, because then I can use the money to buy a women's version. Is honey going to look dumb on Celeste? I saw a picture of one over on bikeforums.net and I thought it looked great, but my husband thinks it is going to look dumb on a black seat post. He may be right.

My next Brooks is going to be this one, though, because I just bought a new/old beater mixte for a second around-town bike. I need springs for pot holes but I will have a less upright position on the new bike than I do on my grocery-getter.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Great! Now start Proofhiding it a few times while you break it in. (No goopy oils!)
I hope it works for you- remember to give it a little time.

[khgulledge]

yeah, i posted them also on bikeforums.net on their "show us your brooks photos".

i totally forgot to order some proofide when i ordered the saddle i was thinking of going to a saddle shop/western store and seeing what they had as far as something with similar ingredients.

anyway, i just love it! i thought it wouldn't look good on my bike, but, hey, i think it looks really sweet!

thanks for all the advice/help and suggestions!

karen.

[xeney]

Okay, I have lost my mind, because I just bought my third Brooks. I bought one of Wallingford's used models off of ebay, a B17S. (Sorry if one of you was the person I outbid in the final seconds!) I just bought a new old road bike for around-town use (going to convert it to single-speed with moustache bars), and I wanted either a B17 or a Champion Flyer for it, and now if the Team Pro doesn't work out on my Bianchi I have a backup.

[esther231]

Sit bones are killing me recently.

Brook saddles the one that helps the most with that?

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

People don't understand why a plain "hard" leather saddle might be more comfortable to sit for hours on than a cushy foam saddle.
Here's the only way I can try to describe why:
If you were to take a couple of balls of dense foam rubber about the size of large eggs, and place them exactly under each sit bone, and then sit on those foam eggs on a chair for an hour, you would be in agony. If you removed those foam eggs and just sat on a smooth wooden chair whose seat was carved to the same shape as your butt, you would be perfectly comfortable sitting for an hour.

[mimitabby]

well put, Lisa

But if you are expecting that wooden chair to feel good after riding on it for 8 hours, you're fooling yourself.
You'll feel better on the brooks than the other saddle, but the wear and tear of 8 hours of riding, you WILL feel that.

and then again, when it's broken in, it will be EVEN BETTER...

i do love my brooks (plural)

[Bad JuJu]

i do love my brooks (plural)

Brookses?

[Bad JuJu]

Question for those of you who chose the B17S over the Team Pro S: why?

I have a friend who got a Team Pro S several years ago when I guess it looked as if Brooks was going out of business. But she never put it on her bike and now has offered it to me, at a severely reduced price, of course. So I said I'd give it a spin. Put it on my touring/everything else bike (get my Bianchi tomorrow!!!!!!), and then it started raining, so haven't had a chance to really try it out yet. But it seems that I can't jam it back far enough. So I checked out dimensions on the Wallingford site, looking for maybe a longer women's saddle, but they all look the same, lengthwise.

So, again, does the B17S offer any advantages over the Team Pro S, like, for example, maybe, length? Thanks!

[xeney]

I think the B17s is just wider and less expensive, not longer. Wallingford has them listed as the same length.

You might try a men's version, but I reached the conclusion that I just could not possibly get a Brooks saddle mounted far enough back on my bike, even with a seatpost with lots of offset. I did some googling and found that this is a pretty common problem. This is actually what prompted me to realize how badly my bike fits -- we put a men's Team Pro on my road bike, and I loved everything about the saddle except that I was literally climbing off the back of it trying to get into proper position. I am going to be able to make the bike fit okay, but not with a Brooks saddle. Major bummer.

[Veronica]

well put, Lisa

But if you are expecting that wooden chair to feel good after riding on it for 8 hours, you're fooling yourself.
You'll feel better on the brooks than the other saddle, but the wear and tear of 8 hours of riding, you WILL feel that.

Not true - my butt starts hurting at 15 hours in the saddle.

V.

[Bad JuJu]

I think the B17s is just wider and less expensive, not longer. Wallingford has them listed as the same length.

You might try a men's version, but I reached the conclusion that I just could not possibly get a Brooks saddle mounted far enough back on my bike, even with a seatpost with lots of offset. I did some googling and found that this is a pretty common problem. This is actually what prompted me to realize how badly my bike fits -- we put a men's Team Pro on my road bike, and I loved everything about the saddle except that I was literally climbing off the back of it trying to get into proper position. I am going to be able to make the bike fit okay, but not with a Brooks saddle. Major bummer.

That's really too bad, Xeney--for you and me both. I had a sneaking suspicion that this was going to be the case--that I couldn't get the Brooks far enough back for my legs to be in the right position. But as usual, I thought, "Oh, it's just me--surely there's some way to make this work." And I may try looking for a seatpost with more offset. But I have my doubts. Oh well, back to saddle-shopping.

[Triskeliongirl]

I had this same problem, but found the Alpha Q Pro Carbon seatpost has a lot of setback and works well with my Brooks Finesse. BTW, my selcolf seatpost has even more setback, but I couldn't get the saddle angle correct on it so I don't recommend it. I am going to evaluate a kalloy uno aluminum post on my commuter soon, and I'll let you know how it looks.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

well put, Lisa

But if you are expecting that wooden chair to feel good after riding on it for 8 hours, you're fooling yourself.
You'll feel better on the brooks than the other saddle, but the wear and tear of 8 hours of riding, you WILL feel that.

True, but riding on a leather Brooks is probably closer to riding on horseback on a good leather saddle than to riding on a wooden chair! (picturing a wooden chair tied on top of a horse now....)
Yes, I'm sure most people would feel some discomfort after sitting on ANYTHING for 8 hours!

[KnottedYet]

I went 52 miles on my Brooks B67 this weekend. Even though the noise bugged me, my butt didn't.

If I wasn't so worried that my torquing the frame so hard when I pedal was gonna bust it, I'd just put up with the noise. The comfort is amazing. The thought of breaking in a B68 (no springs) is less than stellar, but worth it to have this comfort without the torquing frame.

I bought some real grease, we'll see if that works better than the T-9 at controlling the noise. I'm giving it another month before I give up.

Man, this is such a comfy saddle!