Originally Posted by
jcb3
I was heartbroken when my beautiful 1970s brooks ripped after a few rides. I tried to moistireize it with sno-seal and applied several good coats, let it soak in according to advice. It developed a small crack all the way through after 5 or so rides, then I got caught out in the rain, and it was gone.
it made me hesitant to consider old saddles, maybe because I'm not knowledgable enough to recognize a good one from beef Jerkey
before
After
just sayin........
Bummer. If it helps, I've bought probably 5 or 6 old Brooks Pros in conditions that looked similar to your before photo. They've all given years, and at least hundreds of miles of service. ( One or two are pushing 2000 miles -- No failures, but some are showing fine surface cracking / some aren't). As RHM pointed out, once damage is done, you really can't undo it, but most of these old, lightly used saddles are still in serviceable shape. You probably just got unlucky or the snoseal caused rotting by sealing in moisture.