Brooks Saddles

[fixedgeargirl]

One day long ago I took the opportunity of the last hour of the last day of Interbike to ride my MTB around inside the exhibition hall (last day, what are they gonna do, throw me out? ). I stopped by the Brooks booth, since I was riding on a Finesse. The chaps at the booth asked if I used Proofhide. The bike was only 2 months old, so no I hadn't. They recommended an annual treatment. They then asked if I was tensioning the saddle with the spanner. Erm, no. They were careful to caution me to tension very infrequently, and then only 1/8 to 1/4 turn at a time. Stressing the fibres and all that rot. They then gave me large tin of Proofhide (about 2 lifetimes' supply) and a spanner. Such nice chaps, those Brooks reps.

It's been six years, and I think I've tensioned the saddle twice, Proofhided twice, both usually needing to be done after a good bit of dry riding followed by getting caught in a thunderstorm and spending an hour or more in the saddle on the way home.

[Barb]

I got a brooks countess. It has springs. Yesterday was my longest ride in it. I rode 30 miles with no ill effects. I have only had it for 2 weeks. It did at first seem like the adjustment nut underneath was in EXACTLT the wrong spot. I thought, it would never break in right, with so much metal under the nose. It seems fine though. Now that I know I am for sure keeping it. I plan to oil the underside with hydrophane. That's the oil I always used to break in my horse saddles. Warning, if you oil the top side, the dye will come off on your clothes.

[doc]

To anyone/everyone on this thread. My problem is never sit bones, it's girly bits. I was wondering if anyone had similar problems and found the brooks to be the solution?

[mimitabby]

To anyone/everyone on this thread. My problem is never sit bones, it's girly bits. I was wondering if anyone had similar problems and found the brooks to be the solution?

I definitely have the girly bits problem too. Since the brooks (b66, b67) supports a bigger/wider part of your rear end, it actually holds the other stuff up higher too.
What I noticed about my great old wonderful brooks that i don't like, is on a long long ride, when i try to flex my back and rotate my pelvis, the pointy
part of the seat bangs my girly bits. BUT while riding, it does a fairly good job of supporting the rest so i only know about the girly bits when I stop abruptly
and slip forward.
I wish i could share that article that I posted about in my other post, but it's copyrighted and it's not legal to do that. But the article and the book (that someone has lent me ) talk a lot about these problems.