Odd Leather Saddle Issue
 

Hello C&V. I usually hang out on the mechanics forum but had a question about old leather saddles I thought more geared to the C&V forum.

On my bikes with standard modern saddles (some sort of padding over plastic shell), saddles are generally comfortable for me when they are almost exactly parallel to the ground or maybe with a very slight nose down tilt.

Well, I have a well worn but still in descent shape leather saddle (Japanese knockoff of a Brooks) that, if I set it up parralel to the ground, it feels like when I am riding that nose is pointing down significantly -- like riding down hill or I am about to slide off the front. To be comfortable, the nose has to be tilted upward to a visually noticable degree. So it looks tilted upward but feels parralel. For life of me, I can't figure out why this leather saddle would ride so differently than my other saddles . Is there something about a saddle that is essensially a sheet of leather attached to railes, with no other supporting structure that would explain this. Or is this perhaps a symptom of sagging leather?

Yep, a little nose up on a leather suspension saddle is typical. Set it up so it's comfy; don't worry about what it looks like.

It a lovely brown with beautiful copper rivets. It looks good no matter what.

Sometimes you can slide forward a bit on a leather saddle, causing undue pressure on your tender fromunder parts, not to mention putting too much weight on your arms. FWIW, I like my leather saddles higher in the nose by about one CM. Or so.

I actually find that this saddle puts less pressure on sensitive areas than my other saddles. I think because its wider (which probably means I should replace my other saddles with wider ones). Its a little tougher on my sitz bones due to lack of any padding but generally its comfortable.

I rode today with nose up but it felt like I could go just a hair higher. I have been having trouble getting just right; seems it goes from being tilted nose up too far to being tilted too much the other way with minor adjustment but thats more to do with the campy seat post and clamp I am using.

The reason it puts less pressure on soft tissues is that there is less give to the leather than to the foam under the covering on a seat with a plastic shell. On a leather saddle, the majority of your weight is on the sit bone area, while on a padded saddle, you sink into the foam and there is pressure applied to a wider area, often causing discomfort.

Yes, those Campy seat posts can be frustrating to get adjusted properly. Trial and error. It'll dial in and you'll get it just right, though it might feel different for a while since you've been using non leather saddles.

Both my girlfriend and I ride with our saddles up a bit in the nose. She's got a women's Brooks B17, and I've got an old Belt (Japanese B17 knockoff). Anything less than a centimeter or two up and I get horrible wrist and back pain from having to support my upper body weight as I feel like I'm sliding forward all the time.

I find, with my suspended leather saddles, that a nose up is not a bad idea, however; nose up does present problems. To solve those, or that, problem, I angle the saddle a wee bit to the drive side, leaving more room on the dress side:-)

Gotta' let the boyz breathe, eh Randy?

As we get older, things tend to hang lower.

This is way too much information.

Oh and like the wimmenz don't TMI us on a regular basis, eh?

When it comes to saddles, there can be TMI. For realz. LOL

;)