my brooks is getting a cutout!

[mimitabby]

more details please?

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I can't imagine that a brooks would behave or feel the same way as a Selle A with a cutout- the Brooks' leather is SO much thicker and heavier.

[mimitabby]

Tom started his business by buying brooks saddles and cutting them out. Then the price of the Brooks went up and he decided to make his own. (the An-Atomica)

I am very interested in the results of this surgery.

[momof4greatkids]

Brooks is test-riding a new model called "Imperial" (I have one on my Serotta) which is a B17 w/a cutout.

I've ridden it since May 23rd and I am so impressed.

I was always dealing w/pain from my saddle. I had a Terry Butterfly. I thought saddle pain was just something I was going to have to learn to live with.

Wrong.

The Imperial has healed my hurts. I absolutely love it.

I believe this model will be available for sale from Brooks very soon.

There is a discussion along w/pics here, if anyone is interested

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=408695

Colleen

[Thorn]

I was going to post pictures last weekend of the saddle, but the camera batteries died. I'll try again this weekend (or...eventually, divingbiker will get hers posted )

Basically, SA takes your brooks, cuts the slot and then reinforces the bottom of the saddle with another piece of leather. The end result is a Brooks-atomica.

I currently have the saddle on the trainer bike...and due to heavy rains and flooding the trainer bike is getting quite a bit of usage

Before the saddle surgery, the saddle was OK as long as I rode sitting up. With the B68 I finally had a saddle I actually sat on top of. However, I couldn't tolerate even riding the hoods on the trainer bike (note: the top tube is too long for me on that bike so the hoods are a stretch). Without a cutout the B68 was not a solution so I sent it off for saddle surgery.

After the saddle surgery, I can tolerate riding the drops on that bike and on that bike the drops put my back almost parallel to the floor.

That said, I'm not totally convinced. Prior to this I have been riding a Selle SMP Lady Strike--just a little too narrow for the sit bones, but it has a wonderfully wide cutout albiet a bit squishy of a saddle. So I've been spoiled with a cutout that is a real cutout, not these slots that have evil dreams of pinching anything that sits on them.

The Brooks-atomica is a narrow cutout and the edges are a little rough. So riding the BA isn't as comfortable, cutout-wise, as the Selle SMP, but it seems pretty close. Being able to sit fully on the saddle has taken away the hip numbness I got from the SMP.

So, I need more time on the saddle to sway my internal jury as to whether I did the right thing....and about that time, I suspect the B68 Imperial will hit the streets.

[mimitabby]

very cool, thanks for the link to the thread.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I'm still wondering how to resolve the basic problem that women (and men) experience on bikes that have your position way down like a racing crouch.

If you sit upright in a chair with good posture, almost all your weight is on your sitbones and very little weight on your sensitive frontal soft parts.
If you then lean forward with your hands and grasp your legs between your ankles and your calves, you'll be sort of simulating the biking racer posture that so many of today's bikes have. Notice your weight then comes right down on your girly sensitive parts and your sitbones are no longer the major weight bearers.
This is why so many women are having pain with their saddles. I'm not so sure it's really the saddles' faults, but perhaps more the fault of the forward crouch racing position so widespread today. Seeking a saddle that helps lessen the pain of this unnatural weight bearing position is just a bandaid for a basically painful setup.
The majority of vintage bikes for the masses (city bikes, touring bikes, mixtes and cruisers)had people sitting a bit more upright.

Can this be solved? I don't know. If you lean far forward on your bike you need support under your front pubic bone and that's where your weight comes down. If you lean back straight upright you only need support for your sitbones, much further back.
Ideas?