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Old 03-19-09, 12:31 PM
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CliftonGK1
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It needs to be broken in.
This is a possibility; but regardless of being 'broken in' or not, no saddle should cause excruciating I-can't-ride-any-more pain.

Wet a towel and wrap it around you B-17 and let it sit for 1/2 hour. Remove a towel and go for a hour long ride on a wet saddle , it will dry while you are riding and you will see the leather is getting softer. When you see slight dimples on the saddle where your sit bones are, the saddle is broken in. Do not ride it any more until it is dry in a day or two.

NO. For the love of all things holy, would people stop recommending things like this? Don't wrap it in a wet towel, soak it in Neatsfoot compound, rub it down with used tractor-trailer crankcase oil, dip it in steer snot, or any of the hundreds of other ridiculous alchemy which people claim will "speed the break in process".
Proofide or SnoSeal or Obenauf's LP on the tophide and underside of the new saddle; then go and ride it. If it's not comfortable, change the position until it is. If you can't make it comfortable, then buy a different saddle!
Speeding up the break-in is just a different way of saying "ruin the structural integrity of the leather." Especially for us big guys, you don't want to soften up the entire saddle.
Now, wetting and riding it isn't going to soften the leather permanently; it's going to reshape it, and then it will dry to the same hardness it was before you wetted it down. The problem with this is that by wetting and allowing the leather at the sit bone contact points to stretch prematurely, you're allowing the rider to sink further into the saddle and put unnecessary pressure on the surrounding soft tissues.

After it is dry you could apply bee wax or any other leather conditioner like the stuff that Brooks recommends.

Do this before riding on the saddle. Proofide or SnoSeal or Obenauf's LP.

You could also use a Dremel tool to make a cutout in the saddle a la Imperial B-17. It will make life easier faster. My Brooks B-17 was so uncomfortable when it was new, I was thinking of returning it. Now it is the most comfortable saddle in my stable.

A Dremel isn't the best tool for leatherwork. The high speed means a cutoff wheel is likely to burn the leather and cause future issues. Any of the routing bits are not cutting the leather, but instead are tearing it away, ruining the integrity of the leather around the cutout. A scalpel, or other leatherworking knife is the best option.

If you have not ridden all winter and just starting the season, it takes a while for you sit bones to get used to carry the weight of your body on any saddle, let alone new not "broken in" Brooks.
True. If the Brooks is the first thing you plop your butt onto after a winter of not riding, it might take a while to get used to riding again.
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