Originally Posted by
Route 66
You obviously have much more experience with this than I do. Having said that though, it seems to me that tilting the nose up would press against my perineum, making the saddle even less comfortable. Please tell me what I'm missing here because I want to understand how all this works.
When you tip the nose up a bit, it forces you back onto your sitbones, which is where you're supposed to be sitting. Most Brooks saddle riders ride with the noses of their saddles tipped up, and some (like Rowan) ride with them tipped up quite a bit.
Have a look at the
Your Century Bicycles thread in the Long Distance forum. There are quite a few Brooks saddles shown there, and most have the noses tipped up.
http://www.bikeforums.net/long-dista...bicycle-s.html
When I got my first Brooks, I installed the saddle level, as you would with most other saddles. After a couple weeks, I was ready to send it back. It was just not working for me. Then Rowan (who was just a Bicycling Forum acquaintance at the time) suggested I tip the nose up. With a lot of doubt and skepticism, I did ... and it worked.
Since then I have had a lot of Brooks saddles and none have taken as long to "break in" because I know how I like my Brooks set up ... ever-so-slightly off to the left and a certain tilt up of the nose. Most of my recent ones have required a couple rides and they are good to go. My most recent one was comfy from the moment I sat on it.
This photo shows our most recent touring setup ... Rowan's bicycle is on the left and mine is on the right.
