My first Brooks B17 after 400+ miles was still like a brick, sold it. Then I got the Imperial with the cutout and this one is sweet. It only took a few rides to adjust it and no real braking in to speak of, pretty comfortable from the beginning. I did some 40 mile rides on it and I wasn't even once thinking about my butt during those rides. And yeah, I had to tilt the nose up, it took tweaking to get it right.