Fifty Plus (50+) - Brooks adjustment in a better size

I got caught in the rain about a week age.I let the saddle dry overnight and the next day I didn't go riding.I just called up Wallingford and talked to Bill and he said it's not covered if you get it wet.I got snowseal on the bottom and I have a bag under the seat so it wasn't spray. I cant believe the rain from my back would ruin the saddle that easy.All the touring bikes you see got Brooks.They ride them in England year around where it rains all the time.I just told Bill to send it back to brooks and see what they have to say.I'm not happy.Not just because of the cost but the break'in as well.I let you know what happens.

You never said what is wrong with the saddle.

Dogbait,I wasn't hitting it I was pushing in on it where the seatbones go.

huh?

It's in the first post,but I went to this new post because the picture was to big, and it blew everything up to big

Sorry, I didn't see the other thread.

That saddle has a problem. I have 2k miles on my brooks and it looks almost like new, with very faint sitbone marks. I've never retensioned it either. Mine has been pretty wet on two occasions, also.

Send it back, I bet they will make it right.

George,
I looked at your saddle picture and I can give you some related advise.
I have a Brooks Champion Flyer which looks like your Brooks except has springs. I no longer use that saddle for similar reasons as your picture. I cannot keep the saddle dry. It rains here a lot and I use the bike for a trainer where I train without bike pants which means a lot of sweat. This Champion Flyer is no good for that. It deformed to the point that I could not hold a good position. I choose not to complain about that and just got rid of that saddle.
I installed a Brooks Pro. Same conditions. Sweat and lots of rain. Against all rules I am using "Saddle Soap" from Farm & Fleet liberally and often. This saddle seems to like it and looks pretty and I have no complaints to Brooks. BTW, I use it every day. Lots of sweat. No drying it off. Just saddle soap.
OTOH, I also have no complaints with the saddle supplied by Trek for my new Madone 5.2. It is harder and I need to stand up more often than on Brooks. No big deal.
I also have no complaint about my Serfas saddle. There is more friction compared to Brooks but no concerns regarding water and sweat.
My advise to you is not to be in love with any given saddle. It is only a saddle. There are choices.
I must admit that I do not loose sleep about a hundredth $$ here or there for this hobby.

I thought about the pro and the lady talked me out of it.She said a lot of people send them back because they were to hard to break in.I was just looking in the touring forum about the pro and a lot of people seem to like them.I'm more disappointed in the breaking in and treating it like a baby and it's garbage after one rainfall.Thanks for the reply Will,

I thought about the pro and the lady talked me out of it.She said a lot of people send them back because they were to hard to break in.I was just looking in the touring forum about the pro and a lot of people seem to like them.I'm more disappointed in the breaking in and treating it like a baby and it's garbage after one rainfall.Thanks for the reply Will,

You know that we are not trying to sell you something.
Any saddle I have, including Brooks, requires frequent getting up for circulation. On the XC tour, there were bikers who got up every few minutes. I do it every ten minutes under controlled conditions like a trainer.
The Brooks Pro is no harder than a standard light weight racing saddle as on a Trek Madone. The Brooks Pro gets more comfortable with time as where the other saddle's do not.
As you bike more and more, I predict, you will stop worrying about it. Trouble is, that saddle in your picture and my Champion Flyer are ruined. So we got to get over it and keep biking.:D
Will

I'm more disappointed in the breaking in and treating it like a baby and it's garbage after one rainfall.

I've never had a Brooks saddle but have looked at hundreds of pictures of them. NEVER, EVER, seen one that looks like the picture you posted. That's weird, George, just plain weird.

Since I know you don't weigh 500 pounds I can't figure out how the saddle got to be in that condition...my weather just 90 miles north of you doesn't have rain that would do that: are you downwind from a chemical plant?

Send it back. Even if they don't send you a new one, you won't have to look at that one any longer...:eek:

I just called up and sent the saddle back and I'll know the outcome Tuesday.Whatever the outcome I'll get another Brooks.I cant believe how comfortible it was. I've had 5 saddles and this seemed to be the best. I shouldn't say that, it was the best. George

I have a hard time accepting that a little rain caused the condition of that saddle. By "caught in the rain", do you mean it was raining while you were riding? Or was the saddle left out in the rain, uncovered, for a considerable amount of time?
Assuming it wasn't rained on for hours, the reason must lie somewhere else. It could be that this saddle's leather was defective, cured wrong or something. Or it could be that something was done to the saddle to cause it to lose its composure. I don't know if that's the case here. I do seem to recall some discussion of applying various stuff and some bizzare ritual involving a mallet. Wouldn't make you a bad person, but perhaps a lesson learned?
Among the many concepts that seem to get distorted and misreported in internet discussions, the idea of "breaking in" a Brooks leather saddle seems to be one of the most twisted. Brooks recommends a light application of Proofide occasionally to treat the leather. Somehow people seem to have the idea that they need to soak their saddles in all kinds of gobs and goos in the interest of softening the leather. Even the revered Mr. Brown describes some drastic procedures that I could only guess would ruin a saddle.
Understand, people. You don't want the saddle to get soft. If it does, it won't work right. The saddle should be comfortable out of the box. If not, either it is not the saddle for you, or it is not positioned just right. The latter is much more likely. Every hour you ride on the saddle, the more it will conform to your unique shape and the more comfortable it will become. Don't try to rush that process. The best things in life often require patience. A Brooks saddle definitely is in that category.
All of this is, of course, IMHO.

Among the many concepts that seem to get distorted and misreported in internet discussions, the idea of "breaking in" a Brooks leather saddle seems to be one of the most twisted....... The saddle should be comfortable out of the box. If not, either it is not the saddle for you, or it is not positioned just right. The latter is much more likely. Every hour you ride on the saddle, the more it will conform to your unique shape and the more comfortable it will become. Don't try to rush that process. The best things in life often require patience. A Brooks saddle definitely is in that category.
All of this is, of course, IMHO.


+1

Yes I rode in a down pour for about an hour.I was about 12,13 miles from the house.I remember a guy up in Canada said he was riding across the country and it rained on him alot. He said after this trip the B17 fit him like a glove.I was thinking about that when I was riding.I said to myself this thing should be nice after this,wrong.As far as the mallet bit,I called up the Brooks shop and asked if I could knead the saddle and was told yes,where I sit.Well anyhow my hands were sore so I pushed down with the head of the mallet where my sitbones should be.Then when I was riding in the hill country I had this squeek that was driving me nuts so I kept pushing down in the center to soften it up.It did stop the squeek.All that was applied to the saddle was 3 coats of proofide and 1 coat of saddle soap and a lot of water.I put 2 coats ofSnoseal on the bottom.I had the nose up about 2" when I first got it and kept lowering it as it lost it's slipperiness and I've had it pretty level for the last month.You are right I don't have much patience never did.I keep trying but I guess it's built into me.Anyhow that's about everything I can think of.I guess I shouldn't have read all those stories about how to break them in.What gets me is all those people said it turned out great.Looking at my saddle even before it got wet had me bothered,it looked like a banana. Oh well live and learn.I just read another story about breakin,the guy puts a wet rag on his seat for an hour,takes it off and rides until dry.Go figure,have a good day guys and thanks again,George

I have never seen a Brooks that looked that way & I have several. It should have turned out more like this one. It's 5 years old & when it was weeks new, with only 1 coat of Proofide top & bottom, I got caught in a deluge (3 inches in 1 hour) on a fenderless bike. I rode it home that day, let it thoroughly dry a few days then added another coat of proofide to the top. It has been on several bikes now, ridden in Winter rains but never got thoroughly wet again. Has about 10,000 miles of riding with a couple more light coats of proofide and never had any tension adjustment.
edit Should add that my weight is in the 145-155 pound range edit
Don

After some thought,I'm going to call up Wallingford tomorrow and tell him to just send a new saddle and throw the other one away,live and learn.

WOW!!!
I just saw that saddle pic! Way over-do with something. If that thing got absolutely rain-soaked, then ridden wet, it can do that. Here's one of my B67's with tons of SnoSeal on the bottom side only. This is at about 500 miles but it looks the same at the current 3000 miles. No further applications are needed. I've ridden alot in the rain, with fenders, and have never had a major soaking as long as I was on the saddle. I cover it with a grocery bag when I stop for more than a couple minutes.

George, did you saturate that leather with some type of oil or leather conditioner? Somehow it got over softened. SnoSeal won't do that. Nor will a normal application of Proofide.
http://i13.tinypic.com/4ctv7uw.jpg

Just did what I said above.When I talked to Bill at Wallingford and he thought something was done to it as well.He said to send the saddle to him and he would look closer and possibly send it to England.I'm just about ready to send for another one anyhow,no matter what they say.I tried to take care of the thing like a baby,but I must have done something wrong.Have a nice night.George

I've never owned a Brooks saddle. However, I'm thinking back about a century or so when I was a teenager - humans had come down from the trees, the penny farthing had yet to be invented but a few radicals were experimenting with what was later called the 'safety cycle'. Okay, I exagerate, but the rest of this post is honest.

My bike had a leather saddle (and a water pipe frame that my Dad had bent when he'd been a kid ... but I digress). We bought that saddle, mounted it on the bike, and I rode it. Never touched it. Being a teenager, the concept of 'maintenance' had little meaning ... aside from air in the tyres occasionally (they occasionally had air in them). Being the bike I rode to school, it sat out in the weather all year round - no bike sheds ya see. So that poor saddle got soaked in the rain and scorched by the sun (this is Australia note) and ridden when soaked and ... well, you can all remember your school days. That saddle wasn't pampered by any means.

Well, after the five years that I rode that bike (and that saddle), it was always comfortable. It developed a dent where my ... um ... you know, them nugget shaped things that girls don't have, where dem things sat - dead set, there was a dent in the saddle there. Apart from that, it looked more or less like a new one ... apart from the sweat stains, etc.

So either Brooks saddles are rubbish or you got a crook one. As I understand things, Brooks saddles aren't rubbish so I'd suggest the latter. Personally, any arguments about what you may or may not have done to that saddle would only weaken the reputation of the clown making the argument.

Richard

After some thought,I'm going to call up Wallingford tomorrow and tell him to just send a new saddle and throw the other one away,live and learn.

I wouldn't do that. If they want to replace the saddle, let them. All we have done is speculate. For all you know, they may see something that tells them it was a defect in the saddle. At the very least, they will have a specimen to study to help understand what can happen to a saddle. They might decide that is worth sending you a free replacement.

Bluesdawg,my wife said the same thing as you this morning.As everybody knows I dont know to much about these things so I just accepted it as my fault,but after some of the other post from England and the rainy parts of the country I guess I'll wait and see.Whatever happens,happens.I just want to get on with it and ride.Thanks for all the replys guys,George

...my wife said the same thing as you this morning...

She is obviously a smart woman. You should listen to her. ;)