norman preis

Hi, iv bought a second hand raleigh scorpio, it came with a Brooks Competition saddle.
Iv been trying to do some research into the saddle to see if its worth selling etc. It seems to be a 'B74' - which i cant find anything about online. Has anyone come accross them before ?
Some Photos . . . .

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Thanks
.np.

Stacey

Sell it?

Ride it!

YoKev

Looks like a really nice saddle, congrats on the find!

One of these days I really hope to find a useable Brooks...all I ever find are plastic seats.

Take care,
Kevin

wahoonc

Maybe shoot a couple of pictures to Bill Laine at Wallingford They might be able to give you some history on it. And I am sure they wouldn't mind the pics for their "museum".

BTW nice saddle, I have an old Ideale and a Wright (knockoff of a Brooks?) and two more Brooks on order. I discovered leather saddles years ago and have never gone back.

Aaron

Stacey

Is that really a 'B-74'? Dosen't B=February, 74=1974?

Look on the wings, the model is usually embossed there. A little Proofide might be needed to make it legible. Looks a lot like my B-15 but with cut sides.

rhenning

The B 74 on the metal is the manufacturing date. Feb. of 1974. The B 15 or B 5N denoting the type of saddle is always stamped in the leather. Brookes Professional Competition saddle don't have a number just the stamping of their name in the leather. You have a 1974 Brookes Pro saddle. It is identical to the one on my 1974 Paramount. Pros generally came on upper end bikes. Roger

norman preis

There are more photos on https://claf-y-bala.fotopic.net/ - I cant see any other markings apart from 2x "Made in England" . If its not a B74 - Could anyone ID the saddle please !
Thanks for the Bill Laine contact.

Sammyboy

I don't think Wrights are exactly a knock off. It's more a case of that being how saddles were made at the time, and Wrights surviving longer than any of Brooks other competitors. I've got a couple of Wrights saddles, and they seem pretty good.

Cyclist0383

It's a Brooks Competition. See this thread for more info. https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vintage/145776-brooks-competition-saddle.html

John E

Since I contributed to the cited discussion thread, I have moved the Brooks Competition to my Peugeot UO-8 daily driver. It makes a superb commuting saddle.

pastorbobnlnh 

All three of my Brooks saddles have the date stamped in the metal frame on the underside.

Is the Brooks Competition a higher end saddle than the Professional? I have two Professionals, one is black with large rivets (an '84) and a brown with small rivets (a '77). I just picked up a nicely broken in B-72 (a '71 or '77, I can't be certain) double rail sprung touring saddle, that I hope to mount to my '66 Collegiate (pictured). I paid $45 delivered. I am having trouble mounting it to that little seat post that Schwinn used on their Collegiates. Any suggestions are appreciated.

unworthy1

No a Competition is a lower model than the Professional. One higher would be a Professional Select and that may be the same thing as a Team Professional as the Select came stock on the Raleigh Team Replica bike, IIRC. The Raleigh experts will know...then come the Swallow and Swift and TI rails...$$$
As for the B72 on a Schwinn post, I have seen some OEM shims that were fitted inside the standard clamps for use with the smaller diam. Schwinn and similar posts. Shouldn't be that hard to find one, try an LBS that can order Wald products.

Stacey

Swap out the center piece from Schwinn seat clamp hardware, leave all the other bits alone.

Pompiere

I read a post here recently that someone had flipped the Schwinn seatpost upside down and mounted a normal sized seat clamp on it.

pastorbobnlnh 

I tried this with the clamp I took from a double rail Schwinn Approved seat I found at the dump. No luck! I couldn't tighten it up enough. The Schwinn center piece is 1-2 mm smaller in width.
I tried this as well. My orginal seatpost is still too small in diameter. I made a shim, but it was still too loose and the seat pivits on the post. The dump seat post has a lip that the clamp slides down to rests upon, thus it won't fit upside down and into the seat tube.

I think what I'll do is take the dump seatpost to a welder along with the Brooks clamp and have him fit a sleeve over the post that fits this clamp. Most of his handy work will be concealed under the seat. I'll paint it silver to keep any rust at bay. I don't seem to be able to find an aftermarket post nor a shim that will work.

pastorbobnlnh 

Success! I stopped at the hardware store to look for a piece of pipe to act as a sleeve for the top of the seatpost. Turns out that a standard size gas pipe is just a slight bit over size for this odd ball Schwinn seatpost diameter of 13/16 of an inch. I bought the length I needed and started spinning it down on the belt sander. About an hour later, I had my own custom made Schwinn (not approved) seatpost that successfully mates a vintage brown Brooks B-72 to a '66 Radiant Coppertone Collegiate. I'll try to take a picture tomorrow. The Brooks looks real nice and will save wear and tear on the near mint original white and gold Schwinn saddle.

Stacey

Good on ya! Congrats!

I-Like-To-Bike

I agree. This is a Wrights W-66 I've had for 35 years. Most recently used on my daughters bike. I believe they were made by the same people who made the Brooks B-66. Someone correct me if that is incorrect

unworthy1

Wrights was a competitor to Brooks that got bought out by (and merged into then retired by) the Brooks Company. I think after Brooks aquired them they continued for a while to manufacture using the Wrights name for some of the cheaper saddles and fulfilling some large contracts. Tended to cheapen the Wrights reputation by making a lot of cheaper product with that name on it, but there were early Wrights saddles very much in the same league as Brooks when both were separate firms. This anyway, is what I've been told, could even be true!

wahoonc

I was basing my assesment of the Wright on the two models I have. They both appear to be of slightly inferior quality to the Brooks. Hence my comment as them being "knock-offs" I guess I am becoming jaded in this current world of nice quality products disappearing from the market and being replaced by cheap pieces of copied crap to fullfill the requirements of consumers that shop only price. (rant off ) I like my Wright saddles. But they don't appear to be of the same quality as a similarly aged Brooks.

Aaron

Sierra

Congrats Bob! The original Schwinn saddle was probably intended for someone who weighed not much over 100 lbs. IIRC, you're a pretty big guy. The original probably felt pretty squishy under you.

I have a couple Schwinn Racers that I put Brooks saddles on. One has a B72, the other a B66. I didn't run into any problems putting them on, but it was so many years ago now that I don't remember just what I did to mount them, so I didn't respond to your inquiry. You had already tried the obvious solutions that I could think of.

Sammyboy

I wasn't making the argument that Wrights were necessarily of the same quality as Brooks. It's more that in a world where only Brooks makes leather saddles, there's a temptation to see them as a Brooks proprietory thing, and anything else as a copy. That's the way I interpreted knock-off. The fact is that whether or not Wrights quality matches Brooks, they're no more a knockoff copy than a plastic moulded saddle with foam on it is a knock off of a San Marco Rolls which uses similar construction. It's just the way saddles used to be made.

unworthy1

Just to stretch this thread a little longer...there still are a few saddle makers other than Brooks building them in the "old way". A couple I'm aware of are Leppers in Netherlands and Persons-Majestic made in Ohio, USA. I've seen a couple boutique leather saddles on high-priced handbuilt steel bikes at the shows where eye-candy is displayed (NAHBS, for example) but can't remember who makes them. They featured a very flat top and "artistic" cutouts in the top...anybody know these?

unworthy1

Here's a bad pic that shows one of the "boutique" saddles in the foreground (and a Calfee bamboo frame behind) https://www.sutter.com/mark/NAHBS/NAH...s/Image40.html
I saw them on some other bikes as well, so reckon they aren't just made by one builder for his bikes, only. Don't think Calfee makes them...on a bamboo tangent, if "steel is real" then "bamboo is _______"?

ollo_ollo

I was in my LBS yesterday & Bill Stevenson showed me one of those "boutique" saddles he had just received for display. It was attractive enough that I asked how much? & he went & looked it up then quoted me something over $100. I'm currently bidding on a B72 & if that doesn't work out, I may try one.
Don