my brooks is getting a cutout!

[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.