Understood. From the original post, I had no idea what you were actually asking.
On descents out of the saddle, do you grip the saddle between your legs to help control the bike? If you do, the Brooks is too slippery for that too (not just when you are seated). I wear baggies, and the Brooks is too slick even with those.
If climbing is important, are you seriously going to put a 1+ pound saddle on your bike? And if you don't spend much time in the saddle anyway, why do you want such a fancy saddle? Surely some standard thing with kevlar wings would be sufficiently durable.
On the issue of durability, leather and rain/mud are not a good combination. If your saddle becomes soaked during usage, you can permanently stretch the leather. The commuter solution to this is to put a plastic bag over it during rain- hardly suitable for trail riding.
And if you let mud dry on/under the saddle, the mud will leach the oils out of the leather, causing it to go brittle. Continual cleaning or reapplying Proofride becomes boring.
These are all worst case examples- I've used a Brooks for occasional MTB in dry conditions for a couple of years. But these saddles are just fundamentally not suited to mountain biking. The only good reason I can think of for a Brooks on a mountain bike is to look different.
BTW, Sheldon Brown has a good article on Brooks. Not MTB specific, of course, bit it should give you an idea of the maintenance required to look after one.
Last edited by womble; 12-17-06 at 10:35 AM.