I rode a century on a Brooks Champion Flyer today. My review follows.

Let me preface it by saying that I had a Brooks in the 70's. It was a black model that came standard on my Raleigh Gran Prix. I could only ride it for 20-30 miles at a time before the pain would start. By 40 miles numbness would set it. I rode a century on it once; it was agony! Needless to say, I was skeptical when I heard the chorus of voices singing the praises. Furthermore, my next road bike, a Nashbar tourer that I bought in about 1992, had a Vetta gel saddle that I found to be wonderful! I never felt pain on it ever. After a century my whole body could be wracked with pain, but my butt was fine. I was very sad when it got old and torn.

I bought a similar Vetta on Ebay, and it seemed pretty good too. However, when I built my new LHT, I decided to take the plunge, buy a Brooks, and see what the fuss was about. I settled on the Champion Flyer, thinking the springs would help by offering a softer ride.

I've had it for about 2 months. I've taken it on longer and longer rides. The furthest prior to today was 50 miles. On all my long rides, it felt like my butt was about to hurt, but it never got to the point where it did. It was more like discomfort that felt like it would soon be pain. I decided to keep it on the bike for today's century. Here are the results:

Between 35 miles and 50 it started to hurt. By 50 miles I was afraid I was going to have to call my wife to rescue me. The rest of my body seemed like it might be able to do the century (I haven't done one in a couple years, and my training for this one was inconsistent) but it seemed as if my butt was not. I felt as if the agony I used to feel in the 70's was going to return. Granted, 50 miles before agony was an improvement on that old Brooks, but not up to the performance I'd experienced with my Vetta.

Anyway, at about 57 miles we reached the turn-around spot, so I took a long rest, sitting in a lawn chair that the organizers provided. When I got back on my bike, the discomfort was gone and my butt felt "good as new". For the balance of the ride I tried to get my butt off the saddle from time to time - either while on the bike through unweighting and sliding back, or by getting off for a rest. The result was that I finished the century with no more butt discomfort than I would consider normal for such a long ride.

I have a motorcycle with a cushy seat and a comfortable riding position, but after an hour and a half my butt always starts to hurt, bad. I've discovered that if I get off when this happens and give it a short rest, I can get back on with almost no residual discomfort. This results in my taking tons of stops for gas, food, etc. It would be nice if I could ride all day without stopping (except when I really need gas), but this is an acceptable compromise.

I'd say my conclusion about the Brooks is similar. It seemed like I had to get off of it occasionally to achieve all-day comfort. While it would be nice if this wasn't necessary, it's not unacceptable.

One last negative though - the thing is noisy. The springs creak. I've tried spraying it with spray-on lithium grease. It helped a bit, but there's still a lot of noise.