In terms of leather quality, I think the old Selle Italia Turbos from the eighties are easily a match for any of the Brooks I've seen first-hand.

I have an old Bernard Hinault edition Turbo, and the leather is still ridiculously soft, after 23 years of rain, sun, and buttcrack.

I have been reading through this wondering why no one has posted a picture of a Brooks they like? Thankfully Stronglight posted that lovely antiqued B-17. Very nice!

I've never met one that took any time to break in, old, new or decrepit. Let's see, I own 3 Professionals, 1 B-15, 1 B-17, and 3 B-72s. Throw an Ideale #80, a Belt (about B-17 size), and a NOS Middlesmore (about B-15 size) into the mix, and lets just say, I have a leather saddle problem.

The two I rode the most this summer: A new Honey Professional and a '71 vintage B-15 (now used on my '03 Cannondale comfort bike).

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...rooksHoney.jpg
http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...s/P1000416.jpg

I post too many photos already and even worked up a photo montage to go with my last post, but started to feel sheepish about it (ie shouldnt there be something better to do at 2:00am).

To Wino Ryder (classic name), I will agree that the "idiotic" comment was a bit strong; on the other hand, the Brooks just looks so foreign on the De Rosa, perhaps my own issues. The De Rosa just seems destined for a Unicanitor or Selle San Marco Supercorsa/Regal (even the Rolls seems a bit clunky). Ye olde Brooks, with all its hand-tooled frumpy glory, just seems perfect for the Worksop Pro, although I dont think it's all that frumpy. Interestingly, the Regal and black Supercorsa also looked good on the Pro, yet the white Supercorsa looked off. Of course, I had been drinking cough syrup at the time...

Thanks for the loving praise of my Raleigh. It's one of the nicest I've ever seen in person and gets comments every time out, even more than the Testarossa red De Rosa Professional (then again, many more are familiar with the Raleigh Pro). It's on my wall as art when not on the road and it gets ridden three times a week or so. It deserves to have some great tubulars in place of the bulletproof, yet haggard, Mavic Open 4 CD. Anyone have anything interesting, drop me a PM.


http://i-vol.com/bikes/forum/seat1_800.jpg

http://i-vol.com/bikes/forum/seat2b_800.jpg

Really? what would you pay for some Mishka aerospokes then? $2000. Or maybe just $200 for a Supreme TT pad.

im not a brooks fan at ALL .
for one reason the comfort factor & $$'s they sell for and especialy the ebay prices .
Omg 400 $ i would ráther buy a frame set.
Cheers
T

Ironically, the exact phrase given by another former Brooks Team Pro owner as he parted ways with a beautiful, just short of broken-in, saddle for $64 that has become the most comfortable saddle I've ever owned.


http://www.i-vol.com/bikes/forum/saddle1.jpg

http://www.i-vol.com/bikes/forum/saddle5.jpg

I bought my Brooks Team Pro for $100.00 in 1978. In those days that was a lot of money. I put it on my Gios, then later on my vintage Ciocc. I've done two centuries and thousands of commuting miles with it. Yes, it might be considered ugly, yes its heavy, and yes, it doesn't look right on a sleek Italian ride, but sure feels good on long rides.

Stussy emailed me when the seat came out, it is indeed limited, you could only buy it in California if I read right, but it was definitely for sale. Came with one of those Stussy collabo joints plastered with designer logos. Nice seat, but for 4 bills, that's the makings of another bike.

mobile homeless: your Cinelli has the most stunning seat lug arrangement i have seen for a long time (click in his sig)

the concor confort is a very comfortable saddle, mine has seen about 150-200,000 km in 25 years, and it's still going strong. amazingly supple despite all that butt-crack and weather. but white? too much grease on my hands much of the time, a white one would become a black one soon enough.