fantom1 

I always notice how my B17 "bows" out on the sides when weight is on top of it. I'm sure that's partially the design, but it seems an awful lot. I had the idea to tie a rope underneath and link both sides together so that the main stresses on the leather cause it to more perfectly form-fit rather than the whole thing sort of smooshing.

EDIT****After some hard Googling, I found that this was fairly common, and so much so that Brooks now offers a model with lacing as an option:

https://www.brooksengland.com/shop/sh...-----------170

HardyWeinberg

Check these out:

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

nancy sv

I suspect that the "smooshing out" is part of the seat molding to your bum. My husband and I both got brand new Brooks at the same time and now have around 7000 miles on them. The last time I put Proofhide on them, I noticed how my seat is still vertical on the sides, but my husband's is bowed out a lot. I think that's because our bums are shaped differently.

Aloyzius

A lot of people punch holes on the sides, and lace them up. I haven't had a need to try it, though, so what the heck do I know?

fantom1 

Interesting....I don't know that much about treated leather, I wonder if punching them out or drilling is better? To google I go.

Louis

I've laced two of my B-17's. On one, a leather punch worked quite readily, the other saddle seemed to be made of much tougher leather requiring me to use a drill.

jaypee

I've modified all of mine (chopped and laced 1 - B17 standard and 2 narrow) and love 'em.

Wanderer

Go with a leather punch, available fairly cheaply, and will last a long time. Any sharp leather punch will have no problem going thru leather.

Make yourself a pattern with flexible cardboard, punching the holes with the same punch. Tape it to the saddle, and punch away. Just reverse it for the other side.

truman

I laced mine because the leather seemed more supple than many other similar seats and after a few thousand miles, the bowing of the sides was getting extreme. I didn't want to discard the saddle. I drilled with a Dremel, eyeballing the spacing and it came out well.

Once it was laced, it was impossible to mount on the seatpost without chopping off the sides as well, so I trimmed the sides with a pair of metal snips - even then mounting it wasn't easy, but I got it done.

HardyWeinberg

Heh... I hadn't gotten as far as foreseeing difficulty putting it back on the seatpost, I have just been stuck on how lacing would make it more difficult to jam a plastic grocery bag in between the rails to cover it when I park it in the rain.

seeker333

Doesn't matter, whatever is easiest. Punch is easier IF you have one. You can buy punch sets off ebay fairly cheap.

I just used a drill and a teensy bit.

The holes only need to be about 1cm apart in a line. That "pre-tied" model from Brooks has far more holes punched than you actually need.

Bias hole placement towards the rear - this is where the saddle skirts flare out the most when compressed - and this is where you need the string. Hardly flares out much at all towards front, no tying needed there.

I made a minor mistake when marking my holes. I used the Brooks embossed stamp on the skirts as a guide for marking holes. After I neatly drilled them out, I was surprised to discover the right side holes were offset by about 1 cm from the left side. Brooks stamped mine asymmetrically - I suspect they do these free-hand. I was able to fix this easily by adding 1 hole to the front of the right side row and 1 hole to rear of left side row. Lucky for me it was offset ~1cm.

So don't go by the stamps. Measure from tip of saddle so the 2 rows of holes will be symmetric.

Use a small, soft string to tie. Larger, harder string will abrade your lycra shorts faster through normal pedaling action.