Classic & Vintage - choped Brooks saddle???

I recently bought a Brooks competion saddle on Ebay the nose has been sawed off flat.The saddle is 25 plus years old. My question is back in the day why was this done. By the way it does look awesome on my black Bianchi premio

Not sure why this particular saddle was chopped the way it was, but the practice remains today. One of our own members has gotten quite a reputation for his work on these saddles - Roadfix.

He "tailored" this one for me.

http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/4726/g4ef2.jpg

Here's a well worn Brooks pro saddle that I acquired in a Raleigh Professional purchase. Its dated '84 and was given the custom haircut as well.

I recently bought a Brooks competion saddle on Ebay the nose has been sawed off flat.The saddle is 25 plus years old. My question is back in the day why was this done. By the way it does look awesome on my black Bianchi premio

In recent years I bought a new Brooks Competition on eBay. It came with the nose chopped off. I wonder if they came that way from the factory. My guess is that it gives just a bit more clearance when you rise out of the saddle.

http://www.wallbike.com/content/butchering.html

My chop job can bee seen on my soma but I didn't chop the nose
http://velospace.org/files/creamy.jpg (http://velospace.org/node/245)
I discussed how I did it in this thread (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=166513)

I think Brooks chopped the nose on some of the Pro models as I have seen quite a few like that. Here is a pic of the chop job I did on an old B17 for the Zeus I'm giving to my son. I left the nose uncut.

I recently bought a Brooks competion saddle on Ebay the nose has been sawed off flat.The saddle is 25 plus years old. My question is back in the day why was this done. By the way it does look awesome on my black Bianchi premio

I'm wondering how that is possible.

I'm wondering how that is possible.

Does this help explain it?
http://www.wallbike.com/content/JPG/cutcampagb17.jpg

From the link I posted above http://www.wallbike.com/content/butchering.html

Yes it does. Thanks!

It was done so that you can get at the front adjustment easier. As most of these "mods" evolved from team mechanics you can understand the need to keep everything easily adjustable when a couple of guys were responsible for up to twenty or more bikes.

vjp

I forgot to add, that unlike the above posted pic from wallbike, usually after the nose was "bobbed" the front of the adjuster bolt was slotted so that you could put the little wrench underneath on the nut and turn the adjuster with a screwdriver. The little brooks wrench is a total pain as there is hardly any room and you have very little throw.

vjp