Jim Kukula

I suspect that "cupping" the saddle means adjusting the tilt so you aren't sliding off the front or the back!

djb

That made me chuckle. I like em, but hey, they're only seats. Whatever works.

PS, now I have an urge to re watch 2001, must be 25 years since I've seen it. Been meaning g to see it with my teenager for a while.

auldgeunquers

Well ... it is clear to me that all Brooks saddles are useless garbage. So everybody just send them to me and I will deal with them for you. Free. No Charge to you. Just pay shipping.

.............. now if I can just remember my ebay password .........

Duane Behrens

Your haughty dismissal of whale oil lamps is indicative of . . . um . . . damn, I hate that even after 2 glasses of wine my spelling is impeccable, even as my thoughts go hither and yon.

Brooks saddles are best suited to C&V road bikes. On those bikes, they look right and they perform as intended. Brooks saddles - at least the B17 - now occupy, and possibly monopolize, a shrinking niche market. 'sokay, I love my two old steelies AND their Brooks. But I won't be putting one on my Tarmac anytime soon. :-)

RaleighSport

Just the saddle angle, you know with the common nose slightly upward position. It was comfortable to begin with but it gave the "sliding forward" sensation.

tmac100

I have 3 Brooks 17 saddles. They were all purchased slightly used - on eBay I think. For ME they are all great, even though I had to break them in for my own body. Lucky me! They all work for me.

Like a Rolls Royce, a Kia, or any other car, nothing fits everyone. The Brooks is no panacea. I smiled about the OP's experience and remembered a colleague (male) with similar bad experiences with his (male) parts. I am sorry when something purchased in good faith and with ordinary expectations (ie not at all unreasonable) have BAD experiences . C'est la vie et c'est la guerre - and thanks that there is eBay

Lou Skannon

This is the Brooks saddle haters thread. Why are all the Brooks lovers posting on here? To think of all the agony that horrible piece of cowhide caused me. Every gel saddle that I ever sat on has been more comfortable than my Brooks. It was a wonderful day when it finally went in the bin. My only regret is that I lost a perfectly adequate seat-post at the same time.

winston63 

Why on earth did you toss your seat post?

Lou Skannon

The Brooks saddle was a present from my touring partner. The only way I could get rid of it was by pretending it had been stolen. Nobody takes a seat and leaves the seat-post; so I had throw it away as well.

JoeyBike

I said some bad things about Brooks saddles here, but I don't actually hate them. Back in the day, and for 20 years, I was in love with mine (they each lasted 10 years). One thing I never worried about on several long bike tours (6 months plus) was my Brooks saddles breaking or wearing out. I could even lift the back end of a fully loaded touring bike BY THE SADDLE a thousand times - something I would not even dream of doing with modern lightweight saddles. I have a million fond memories that were generated with my arse on a Brooks Professional.

Long story short...modern saddles are weightless and comfy from box to landfill. Most last me three or four years. They cost about the same as a Brooks, don't last as long, but man are they heaven to ride. I can spend a day on any bike up to 150 miles and never think about my saddle even once. When your saddle simply "disappears" under you, you know that's a winner. No matter how comfy my Brooks were, I always knew there was a saddle present.

MassiveD

Nope dead serious. These are older techs, a lot of people don't care to learn them. Nor should they feel they need to if they don't want to, but realize your shortcomings (should they exist) and get on with it.

99% of the mystery about leather saddles is eliminated by a passing familiarity with leather. That applies to people who like the saddles, and people who don't. We live in a society where people send knives back to the factory to get them sharpened, and where there are kickstarters for CNC gizmos so one doesn't need to learn to tie a knot. Fair enough. Why learn basic skills if one doesn't need to. Expect to be laughed at for publicly ranting about a lack of personal skill. It was meant as a joke right?

MassiveD

It's what they do, bolts are old tech too, and apparently there wasn't a quick release in a bright Ti colour to fill them in.

MassiveD

Apparently no quick release there either.

Had there been he could have separated the two, and stashed the post.

tjkoko

I really enjoy using my kerosene lanterns even if they're dimmer than those powered by Coleman fuel. Makes for a pleasant experience.

shipwreck

[QUOTE=MassiveD;17080615]Nope dead serious. These are older techs, a lot of people don't care to learn them. Nor should they feel they need to if they don't want to, but realize your shortcomings (should they exist) and get on with it.

99% of the mystery about leather saddles is eliminated by a passing familiarity with leather. That applies to people who like the saddles, and people who don't.QUOTE]


You are basically saying that the OP is venting about something caused by incompetence or laziness in not studying the esoteric mysteries of cow hide, rather than simply being one of many who don't like brooks, and one of those who has one that might suffer from accelerated stretching.

Going out on a limb here, but I would venture a guess that 99% of brooks owners who are satisfied with their saddle are not the "leather whisperer".

Lou Skannon

It was the last day of the tour and I was packing the bike into a box at the campsite nearest the airport. My touring partner had wandered-off, I stood there with the seat in my hand; looked at the box and looked at a nearby rubbish bin. On the spur of the moment, I threw the seat in the bin and carried on packing the bike. Best moment of the whole tour!

Lou Skannon

It was the last day of the tour and I was packing the bike into a box at the campsite nearest the airport. My touring partner had wandered-off, I stood there with the Brooks seat in my hand; looked at the box and looked at a nearby rubbish bin. On the spur of the moment, I threw the seat in the bin and carried on packing the bike. Best moment of the whole tour!

People would remark, "That's a nice seat, is it comfortable?"
And I would say, "Yeah, great." Hoping that one day it would be.

djb

had to put this in, made me chuckle as well.

post 133

https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycli...g-myths-6.html

RR3

More of a Berthoud rider here but one ride on the new B17 last night might make me a convert.

Why is it modern saddle rails break......100 miles from home.

staehpj1

I am always kind of puzzled by comments about saddle rails breaking or plastic saddles wearing out prematurely. I have ridden hundreds of thousands of miles in the last 50 + years and never broken a saddle rail and still have 30 year old plastic saddles that are fine. I still consider the plastic saddle that I rode coast to coast and on several other long tours to be a new saddle.

I have never been especially fussy about saddles. I'd take any of the saddles that came with my bikes on a coast to coast trip without hesitation. Perhaps strangely the B17 was the only fail of all the saddles I have used.

RR3

Variables contributing to rail breakage: rough roads, heavy riders, improper clamp size/shape, bouncy pedaling technique, overtightening, rail material, and probably the biggest is slamming the seat all the way back. I have broke a few

chasm54

Different strokes. In my own case, it's the Brooks that disappear. Some modern saddles do almost as good a job - have a Fizik Aliante that is a decent saddle - but none of them are as ideal as the B17 on my touring bike, or the Swift with Ti rails on my favourite road bike. In my case I suspect it's because I'm not quite symmetrical - the impressions made by my sit-bones on the Brooks are of different depths - so that on a saddle that doesn't conform to my shape the pressure is never evenly distributed between right and left.

However, people like what they like. What is remarkable is the level of emotion generated. Who cares what saddles other people like? And why? Choosing a saddle isn't a matter of religious orthodoxy, or whatever...

JoeyBike

Yeah, I could see how a Brooks would be good medicine for that issue since your sit-bones actually shape the saddle perfectly to suite your anatomy.

You must know that most folks riding Brooks saddles in 2014 are either stubborn old men or hipsters driven by style and peer approval. Sticking with a tired old saddle (or whatever) orthodoxy or attempting to gain elevated personal status through retail purchasing are both akin to religious endeavors for many of us humans. People still buy self-winding Rolex watches when a $40 Timex keeps better time. Human behavior is interesting at the very least - from the hipster purchasing a Brooks to go with his skinny jeans to the rest of us observing it and casually wondering "why".

You don't fit into either category because you admit that you have actually TRIED something new and perhaps "better" in the world of bike saddles and found the Old Reliable works better for you.

chasm54

Ah, I assure you that I am indeed a stubborn old man. Just not on this particular issue...

tjkoko

I just pulled the trigger on a Terry Fly Ti, used off ebay, for $55 and will let y'all know how it feels. Won't go into specifics at this point but it's way narrower than the B17.