Scooper

Brooks Cambium B-17

Thanks to ronf100 for the heads up.

gomango

Not to me.

Looking forward to trying one off road this season.

Mud, gravel, silt, dust and fairly constant wet weather here this spring have been hard on my leather saddles.

The only hold up for me will be cost, as I have been buying lightly used Swifts and Team Pros for around $75.

Chombi

The fabric cover still screams "Office furniture upholstery" to me, especially now seeing close ups of the weave. Leather usually gets nice when it wears in, but that's usually not the same for textiles.....they get stretched out of shape, thread bare, grisly, sometimes moldy and nasty... which will make this saddle quite a hard sell for Brooks unless their "Beta" testing will prove them to be at least, as road worthy and durable as all the other available saddles out there. Any thing less could spell a quick death to this Brooks "experiment"....

gomango

You may well be correct on all points.

I still like to try new bike items though and will be happy to report back at some point.

As long as they are not over priced.

lostarchitect 

I'm certainly willing to check them out. Maybe they'll be great, maybe they'll be awful. Won't know until we try.

rhm

I was promised one years ago when they did the 'Imperial' test but the project got shelved for a while. I'm still hoping I'll be one of the lucky testers sthis time around. One way or another, I look forward to trying it out.

As for heresy, Brooks has made mattress saddles and unicanitor-like plastic ones and all kinds of stuff in the past, why shouldn't they continue to innovate? Not every innovation is a success, but I give them credit for trying.

fietsbob

Have an Old Bike on consignment, in the LBS with a Brooks made Vinyl covered spring
supported saddle . from back When Britian Made Bikes entirely on the Island.

Pre Thatcher.

rootboy 

Because it might further degrade their flagging reputation?

gomango

Fyi

Not one of the people I ride with has had an issue like those reported on message boards.

Again, issues may/do exist, but most of the guys I ride with will only put a Brooks on their bicycles for long distance jaunts.

......and they have very nice bicycles. In addition, they ride crazy big miles every year.

cobrabyte

I think I'm going to start a thread about these new saddles Brooks is coming out with. Have you guys heard anything about them yet?

cyclotoine

I do agree with Chombi and have my reservations about the cotton top. I do think they could have used something like hemp, bamboo or even nylon. I am sure there is a good reason, like maybe nylon would be too abrasive and just destroy shorts? I dunno. I am very curious to give this saddle a try off road.

ColonelJLloyd 

Think about their product. They are, effectively, the only game in town for the product they make (I do not consider the Gyes et al saddles to be of comparable quality). The type of customers they have tend to be loyal, repeating customers. Are you suggesting someone who has ridden Brooks Professionals for decades is simply going to buy a Fizik next time he/she needs a saddle?

They are attempting to increase their customer base by designing/making a new product. Were I a shareholder of Brooks I'd certainly be expecting them to increase sales by various means.

rhm

What a novel idea! Oh, wait. This is a thread about these new saddles Brooks is coming out with, and not the first of them. And so far, it appears, none of us has heard anything about them beyond the fact that they are to be released soon, but are not available yet.

lostarchitect 

Flagging reputation? I don't think they've been this popular since the 60's!

Chombi

If you do not know, in a previous post regarding the new Brooks saddle, it was mentioned that Brooks was distributing something like one or two hundred "beta" copies of the saddle to anyone willing to test them for feedback....might be all spoken for by now, but it might be worth checking at the Brooks internet site to see if you can be one to give it a test.....

rootboy 

No. That's not what I'm suggesting Colonel. As one of those who has ridden Brooks Professionals almost exclusively for the last 4 decades I am one of those loyal Brooks customers. I can only say that the one "modern" Brooks saddle I own, while good, is not nearly up the quality standard of the older saddles I own. But what is? Still the best suspended leather saddles in the world? I think so.

My comment regarding their reputation suffering is, admittedly, largely based on hearsay and was meant more as a rhetorical answer than anything else. It's perhaps a natural business decision to try to expand their customer base and come up with new products. It's the way of the world I guess. But in my opinion those who acquired the company are starting to take Brooks in the wrong direction. Just my opinion of course but their's is the same sort of thinking which has resulted in the dilution of venerable companies such as C.C. Filson, Redwing Boots, the C.F. Orvis company, etc., etc. In other words, appeal to the masses, in the name of increased sales, and lose sight of what you were truly excellent at. I have only to look at this new saddle, as well as these types of offerings, see link, to see what I fear is sliding down the slippery slope into mediocrity. Do I understand their move in this direction? Of course. But I think it is misguided. They may think they can't survive otherwise....and I may be stuck in the past.

https://www.brooksengland.com/catalog...shop/clothing/

rootboy 

True I guess. But sales numbers and popularity do not equate to maintaining the highest quality standards the company was built on...at least to me.

Italuminium

On friday, they'll announce the lucky testers. I hope I'm in!

ColonelJLloyd 

I'm not convinced the quality of Brooks saddles 40 years ago was really all that much better than today. I think we tend to romanticize things. I also believe agribusiness has played a huge role in actually changing cattle, so if the leather is not as good as it once was it may simply be out of the control of Brooks.

rootboy 

"We"? You got a mouse in your pocket?

lostarchitect 

That may be true, but that doesn't mean they have a flagging reputation.

lostarchitect 

Yeah, on the older ones I have seen the leather seems to be somewhat thicker, but that is the only major difference I see.

noglider 

In 1979, sales of Avocet saddles was soaring, and people in the US discovered the Italian style saddle in a big way. (I'm speaking of plastic shell, padding, plus a leather or other covering.) Brooks came out with their own versions of these, hoping not to lose market share. No one wanted a Brooks saddle of any style. I remember smirking and thinking, Brooks, you're a has-been!

I came to bikeforums in 2009 and rolled my eyes when I saw people were talking about Brooks. Never mind that I still had an old Pro on my McLean. Then after a little time, I realized there really is something to those great old leather saddles.

oldbikenewbike

Looks like "Change for the sake of change". Maybe it's only me, but it looks like an old sofa fabric my grandmother had...and I'm 60 years old now.

I say stick with what made them great in the first place. This is like a K-Mart version saddle, which will begin to cheapen the brand overall.

rootboy 

Only in my fevered brain, LA.