Creaking Brooks B-17
 

I have been putzing with my Brooks for some time now to get the creak out, but it still creaks. I greased it and lubed it and it still creaks.

I have recently tried to adjust the saddle up and that seems to work, at least for now. My question has to do with the threading. Is it the stock right-tighty/lefty-loose or the reverse? It gets confusing. All I know is that I have lots of bolt still under the leader if I need to extend the seat forwards. Which direction tigtens? loosens?

Saddle postion should be adjusted for comfort and fit, not to eliminate squeak. Mine creaked for a long time then for some reason it just stopped, most of the time anyway.

I didn't understand the second part of your question, are you trying to tighten the saddle with the bold under the nose? I wouldn't mess with it if it's not too loose. There isn't much fore/aft adjustability with the brooks saddles, mine is all the way back and I had to get a different post.

If you are trying to move the saddle around in relation to the post then your questioin would pertain to the seatpost. What kind of seatpost do you have?

Now that is a weird one. I had the same problem with my B-17 about a week in. I re-adjusted the height about the same time and once that was done, the sound went away and has never come back. I was glad it did but never did figure out why.

Sheldon

Regarding saddle mounting threads, all are standard clockwise-to-tighten. Left-hand threads are used only where necessary to keep rotating parts from self-disassembling, so we find them on the fixed BB cup (English/ISO and Swiss), the pedal eye of the left crank and mating pedal shaft, and the bearing cap of old-style freewheels.

My Brooks Pro sometimes creaks, but after 30 years and over 40K miles / 65K km, I suppose it is entitled to!

Sakae, 27.0, FourSir (it says on there)

My new B17 just started squeaking on last night's ride. I removed it and sprayed Silcone under the attachment rivets and front and rear brackets on the underside and no improvement. Aside from the moon's being in alignment...anybody have a similar noisy Brooks that they were able to quiet down with a home brew solution?
Thanks,
George

Having spent the last 15 years chasing noises I can safely say.........."make sure it is the saddle." Lube seatpost, etc. to rule them out.

agree Ranger...very hard to diagnose. Sounded like a creaky headset or fork actually. Was the Brooks saddle. Put a different saddle on the bike and drove it for a fair distance and dead quiet...just the melodic whir of a nice Campy driveline...ahhh.
Removed the saddle and was able to recreate the noise of the saddle in my hands.
It comes from the attachment flange and rivets to the relatively hard leather. Lubricating the rivets and brackets is a slippery slope forgive the pun as oil is known to reduce the strength of the leather and didn't want any rivet button holing issues. Many have reported their Brooks to squeak on occassion...the cow may still be alive...lol. Silicone spray does help quite a bit. Was wondering what others did.
Thanks,
George

I always thought a B-17 was a WW2 heavy bomber. You learn something new every day.

Make sure the squeek isn't comming from the seat rail to seat post clamp area, that'd be easier to fix. I've had a couple of seat posts that just wouldn't stay tight.
as far as the saddle, mine has never squeeked although I ride a brooks presoft. But I use the brooks saddle wax stuff on mine. I don't know if this helps you or not, just thought I'd share.
rubber side down

I don't see that this question has been answered, but if you are referring to the bolt assembly that is part of the saddle, don't mess with that. That is for adjusting the tension on the saddle as it gets older and the leather starts to sag too much.

If you have turned that bolt, re-adjust it turning counter-clockwise ( as you are looking at the saddle from front to back) until it won't turn any more. Then leave it alone until the saddle needs to be tensioned, probably in five or ten years.

Believe it was Sheldon Brown that wrote, tensioning any Brooks saddle has always resulted in its early demise...not improvement.
George