Retem

chop and tie a b-17 or professional thats after all what they did in the old days

mcatano

Selle An-Atomica, maybe?

stevo

If your a$$ is where its supposed to be, noone can see 'the look'

Moto-Velo

You asked. I'm just telling you. That's the difference. If you want a lighter saddle, you don't go for a Brooks, period.

seaneee

So do the laces criss-cross from side to side rather than using rivets in the center?

seaneee

Leather craft time...

You can get a leather punch set from an art or fabric store pretty cheap. You can also get a pair of button pliers (not sure what the official name for them is), that can do both buttons and rivets. Punch the holes first then do the rivets with the pliers.

Here's some links:

https://www.emocs.com/leatherpunch.htm

https://www.misterart.com/store/view/...Punch-Sets.htm

I'm a closet scrap-booker.

https://www.joann.com/catalog.jhtml?C...&source=search

steppinthefunk 

sorry for the late replies...

The cloth laces don't tear up my shorts... I havn't ridden enough on the leather laces to tell if they will or not...

Yup, The lacing criss crosses under the saddle making for a pretty tight fit...

Here's an ugly shot of the underside of the saddle... This is before I shoepolished the cut edges - it looks alot cleaner now...

youth

i lol'ed

Dave Hickey

Another Brooks chopper. This was a B17. The "after" pic is about 45 minutes worth of work with a Dremel and shoe dye...I use this saddle on my Soma Rush

stevo

....actually, I didnt ask. but i get your point.

12XU

Or just step up to the real steez and get a Swift, boieeeeeee:

[IMG][/IMG]

shapelike

Re: Swift vs. Swallow, if you're rocking a Thomson no setback post (or something similar) the Swallow isn't generally a good option because the plaque will knock off it when you hit a bump, etc.

roadfix

....and give it a mild chop job...

salome

I've had chopped B-17s in the past and currently have 2 Swifts.

I find that Brooks saddles, in general, really chew up your pants and that chopped ones do it more than any others.

I would look on ebay and get a Swift. I really like the more narrow profile of the Swift compared to B17s and Team Pros. I'm a girl and haven't had issues with it being too narrow.

just my opinion.

12XU

Noooooooooooooooooo!

mcatano

You've always struck me as more womanly - lady-like, even - than girlish.

11.4

When you chop a traditional leather saddle, the center tends to want to sag more easily. If you weigh 130 lbs, it probably isn't a problem, but if you weigh 185, it will be. By leaving a tab on each side where you cut the leather away and then pulling them together, you create a shape that is more resistant to collapsing. The stitching connects the two tabs under the saddle so there's no stitching in contact with your shorts. If you don't have the tabs, you can still use waxed cotton thread and it'll seat into the leather so it's pretty much flush and won't wear your shorts. You can get a leather groover and cut some very shallow grooves for the threads so they are completely flush -- it looks very nice and doesn't compromise the saddle, but you should practice to be sure you do it right.

If you're going to chop a saddle, I'd think about chopping a Brooks Team Pro -- it gives you the thickest leather to start with and you don't need the holes in the middle that other Brooks saddles have. Those holes just make for early failure points on a chopped saddle.

If you want an even nicer saddle than a Brooks, check out Ideale's. They're out of production now but they show up on eBay from time to time. Ideale's were the real prize among pro cyclists up to the 1970s.

seaneee

+1 Ideale saddles are rad and super comfortable.

ersatz radio

Your rear brake cable housing is too long. Just ask Sheldon: https://sheldonbrown.com/cables.html

The saddle looks great though

wagathon

For a swallow-like saddle, all it takes is about a week and softening up the ears so that they fold under the saddle when your weight is on the top of it. If you want to speed the process, try working it like a mit to work the leather ears under the saddle.

This worked for me fairly quickly by starting with an aged model Brooks to speed up the process. I started with a couple of treatments of mink oil all over the saddle (on the outside not the brused underside of the saddle). You work the ears by curling them and forcing them under the saddle by getting them past the saddle rails (you can put something between the ears and the rails to keep the ears curled for a day or two between treatments).

For the final step, a leather toe stap works well. Treat the saddle again with some mink oil and fix the strap around the middle of the saddle. Use a square of folded terry cloth towel on the top of the saddle (under the strap) to provide enough leverage to really crank the ears under the saddle by tightening the strap. You know how these straps work: they remain cinched up until you release them (after the strap is tigtened as much as possible, it can be tighted even further by forcing the tightened strap away from the nose toward the back of the saddle). If you leave the saddle cinched up like that for a while, the ears will be trained to curl under the saddle.

acorn_user

San Marco Rolls?
Wright are niceish too.
Love the Miche seatposts and Mercian too =]

Samwiches

Me too. I saw one on CL yesterday.

monsieuroctagon

chamfer the edges

AlanKHG

There actually are cheaper alternatives to the Swallow now, as well:
https://www.velo-orange.com/vosaddlemodel6.html

No idea on the quality.

krusty

Quite good. The price is right, anyway. The adjustment, when it becomes necessary, is a snap with an allen key. Use a conditioner out of the box.