Brooks Saddles

[massbikebabe]

O.K. Ladies...

Are you ready for the Brooks Bar tape??? It's out there but too rich for my blood right now.


karen

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

if the saddle itself is the same width as my outside-outside measurements, does anyone think it would be supportive enough?

Hmm...I would think that you don't want your sit bones to be sitting right on the outer edges of the saddle. That outer edge is where the support frame in under the leather. You want your sitbones on the leather within that frame, so it can form to your bone contours, like a stiff hammock. Have you considered the Brooks "S" models, made for ladies and slightly wider?
In any case, I would call Brooks and describe your measurements and see what they recommend for you- they KNOW.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

O.K. Ladies...

Are you ready for the Brooks Bar tape??? It's out there but too rich for my blood right now.


karen

I checked it out on a bike installed. I love the look and the color and the feel. Except for one thing though- it does not lie as flat as cork tape or fabric tape. Because it is thicker, it forms a slightly raised ridge where its edges overlap, spiralling along the whole bar length. Some people might not mind that uneven ridged feel, others might want their bars real smooth.

[Veronica]

O.K. Ladies...

Are you ready for the Brooks Bar tape??? It's out there but too rich for my blood right now.


karen

I have it and love it. It holds up well in the rain too. Mine is black. It doesn't look dirty the way my green cloth tape did.

V.

[KnottedYet]

if the saddle itself is the same width as my outside-outside measurements, does anyone think it would be supportive enough?

Nope. What LisaSH said. There is a metal support running along the rear curve to which the leather is bound. Sitting on that metal isn't going to be the best choice. A B17N is gonna be NARROW. A B17 or B17S might work better as far as getting the full benefit of a leather saddle. Tell Bill or Diane at Wallingford your measurements and talk to them to get a good saddle choice.

[khgulledge]

well, i talked with bill, but he pretty much said i wasted my time by taking my measurements and flat out suggested only the women's models. he said they didn't go by measurements, but by riding style and the kind of bike you had.

i wasn't very impressed with his help...maybe i called at the wrong time or something. i told him of my troubles on the longer rides, the soreness and chafing on the left side and he just wasn't as helpful as all ya'll made him out to be.....

anyway, i took the plunge and ordered the b17s. guess i'll find out in a couple of days whether i got the right one. and i know it will take a lot of riding to figure out whether it's the ONE or not, but i just mean width wise right now.

177mm (7") seems like it might be too wide, but what do i know.....

[mimitabby]

7" barely covers the span of my hand.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I have the B17S, and it doesn't seem that wide at all (at least compared to my bottom! ), so don't worry too much about that, I would say. The extra width of the "S" is really not very much.

[khgulledge]

well, today, i also exchanged my butterfly for a liberator x (gellisimo) at perf.

put that on the bike this evening, and all i can say is WOW! it is shorter than the butterfly and i immediately noticed that girly parts are not being mashed nor is there any pressure on them. i rode in the drops for a short while and no pain/pressure. my butt actually felt ok and i hardly noticed i was sitting on the saddle!

i should be getting the b17s in a couple of days and will try that one out as well. seems like you can return to perf just about anytime and the b17s is 6 months, so, i should be able to figure out what works in that time period.

all i can say right now is i'm in saddle nirvana

[DebW]

I'm not joining the cult, but here are some pics of an old Brooks from a 1954 Raleigh three-speed that's sitting in my basement to be refurbished someday. I can see a "B" and a "7" and a "L" on the skirt, so probably a B17L. You all can swoon over it if you want to. But let me tell you, her leather is cracked, there is a tear by the rear nameplate, and the nose rivets are about to pop through the leather. If you sit on it, you're practically sitting on the metal frame underneath. It's so short that when I sit on it, my pubic bone is right on top of the nose. I should try adjusting the nose tension and see if I can tighten it up without tearing the leather. Any thought on whether I should keep this with the refurbished bike or send it to the Brooks home in the sky?

[xeney]

I would not trust it. We have a lot of old Brooks saddles in this house -- some came on old bikes, some we bought to put on old bikes -- and not one of them is safe or comfortable to ride. If a Brooks is treated well it can last a long time, but people don't sell old Brooks saddles that they are treating well, and once an old Brooks stops being cared for, they fall apart pretty quickly.

I had one that looked very much like that, except someone had dunked it in Neatsfoot oil so it was also slimy and gross right over the cracked leather, and on my second ride I was truly riding on the frame. It was miserable.

My husband had one that looked mostly fine, but it broke in the middle of a ride. It had been overtensioned and over-oiled, and the whole nose part of the leather just snapped off, leaving him to ride home standing up at 2 a.m. Kind of the wrong sort of Saturday night excitement!

[mimitabby]

have you greased that poor saddle? imho, i would do that and leave it on the bike. I don't know if you're actually planning on riding the bike, if you are, and
this saddle is too uncomfortable, i guess you had better replace it.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I'm not joining the cult, but here are some pics of an old Brooks from a 1954 Raleigh three-speed that's sitting in my basement to be refurbished someday. ....Any thought on whether I should keep this with the refurbished bike or send it to the Brooks home in the sky?

The leather is shot. It's cracked all over the place, it's 52 years old, and besides- you can see the sitbone dents, meaning it formed decades ago to somebody ELSE'S butt shape! That would be like trying to wear someone else's decades-old dried up cracked leather shoes. I would keep it for "posteriority", and selling the old bike with its old saddle would be good to do, but if you plan on actually riding the bike after refurbishing it, I wouldn't want to ride on THAT saddle.

[KnottedYet]

I might have to give up...

I am seriously lopsided on the bike and there are some noises my B67 makes that just aren't going away. I'm guessing that I'm putting a big twist into the saddle frame with every pedal stroke. (even the sit-bone dents are uneven)

Wrote to Bill at Wallingford, and he sent me an email back right away. Sounds like I've done all the right things, but with my riding style I might just need a different kind of seat frame. One that won't give as much under my lopsided butt.

So I'm looking at B17S and B72. Anyone able to compare either of those to a B67?

My measurements put me just able to maybe fit on a B17S (outside edges of the dents I put on the B67 is 145mm, paper trick puts me at 170-180mm, turtle trick is 155mm). That one doesn't need a seat sandwich and doesn't have any springs. It's 177mm wide, but only 245mm long.

The B72 has the same dimensions as the B67, but has double rails and less-flexible springs. I dunno if I wanna mess with any springs at all. Dunno if I wanna mess with a seat sandwich, either.

[mimitabby]

my B66 on my raleigh has a seat sandwich. It's no big deal really.. just doesn't fit the modern stuff I guess.


do you want to try my saddle saturday to see if mine is noisy for you too?