Originally Posted by
ze_zaskar
It has less rail range than the B17?
No, I don't think so. Here, see if you can make sense out of this photo:
The saddle at the back, the farthest one from the camera, is a Professional; the one in the middle is a B.17; the one in the foreground is a Wrights W3N.
Note in particular the shape of the rails between the nose piece and the clamp area. The difference in the shape of the rails here is mainly cosmetic; seen from the side, you can see the rails of a B.17 but the rails of a Professional are hidden. The clamp areas are the same, or very nearly the same. Another difference is that the B.17 has loops for a saddle bag, while the Professional does not.
The Wrights and the B.17 have the same frame except that the B.17 bag loops have eyelets in them, while the Wrights does not.
Originally Posted by
brockd15
Whichever you decide to try, you may want to consider buying your Brooks from Wallingford ...
A good suggestion for anyone in North America! But I think Ze Zaskar lives in Europe, which would make shopping from Wallbike uneconomical.