another brooks story... not surprised really...

i have five brooks: two black b-17s (one was $41 at Nashbar), one honey b-17, a honey (copper-rivet) special, and a flyer ($49 at aebike on a daily deal)

the two black b-17s were broken in out of the box
the flyer took a week or so of sweaty riding
the honey special took 1,500 miles to break in
the honey b-17 was rock hard after nearly 3,000 miles of riding

(the honey b-17 is much better now; just took a slathering of Sno-Seal and melted it in with the wife unit's hair dryer; i expect it will be another 1,000 miles before softening)

fortunately, my sit bones are a nice match for the saddles; i have others, such as Specialized bg, Selle Italias, etc. and none of those worked for me