Brooks is looking for testers again, this time in May for their re-thunk Climax

Do you have a link to the announcement?

https://www.brooksengland.com/cambium/Register.aspx

If you take the very short survey you can add your two cents about the name and suggest another.

I suggested "C17 Relief" which is not all that clever but is descriptive. However, I toyed with the idea of suggesting "C17 Faulty." After all, there will be a hole in the rubber.

Jus' sayin'!

Which led me to look at their cycling clothing offerings:

https://www.brooksengland.com/catalog...shop/clothing/

I understand this is well made stuff, made by craftsmen who deserve to earn what they earn, not in sweatshops where the workers deserve to earn a whole lot more. So I guess I understand the pricing. But the idea that a decent looking cycling jacket should cost well over a thousand dollars, well, that's pretty depressing.

Thank you sir!

No clothing should cost that much, unless life safety is a factor... like maybe a space suit.

I don't find it depressing. I find it offensive.
Like many of their questions on the survey, which are nothing more than a clever marketing ploy.


20. From which of the following online shops have you bought in the past?

Where do I shop online? Why do you ask? None of your business. And what has this got to do with testing one of your saddles?

This is a test alright. But not of a saddle.

Too funny

I voted Climax...I want to run it on my s3x hubbed bike.....maybe I can drop the Viagra script?

Mmmmm, it's not a test...it says it's a survey....It's what Marketing Depts. do. I'll tell 'em where I shop for the opportunity to grab a free and probably way soon to be overpriced saddle. Heck, I even volunteered a few e-stores they didn't have listed.

I wrote in "Flow"!

To many bad 1 liners with Climax

True. But in order to test one of their saddles, you must take the survey, and bow to their marketing dept. by revealing your
shopping habits. Why? It is, of course, the way of the world these days. I'm not naive. I find most of the information they're soliciting has little to do with testing one of their saddles. But I'm just a curmudgeon on stuff like this.

It's is annoying I agree. I find it odd that they look to the people who are already buying their stuff new/used and look to go deeper. If I owned Brooks, I'd want every Raleigh that came out of the box to be sporting a Brooks saddle.....kinda like the old days.

Speaking of Raleigh, a Cambium would look great on the Tamland Pro.

If every bike came with a Brooks, you know people would just start throwing them in the trash lol

I'm tempted by a Brooks saddle. My dad swears by leather saddles (he has a Wrights)
I just think it might look weird on an 80s Japanese bike

i suggested the name "Carve". "Climax" is just ridiculous.

and 700 euros for a blazer is pricey but not out of line for a high-quality handmade item. Designer suits cost a lot more than that.

that said, if you want a good blazer for cycling, check out Outlier - outlier.cc. I have both of their blazers and they are great.

Their (Outlier) clothes are gorgeous.

I have three pairs of their Merino wools socks that are top shelf.

They have a Merino wool hoodie that is highly tempting, but I have an old Patagonia that I am not ready to quit on yet.

Hi, Rudi.

What makes you think the 1000euro jacket isn't made in a sweatshop? Nothing in the description suggests otherwise... all the Made in UK stuff on Brooks tends to put that in the description...

Sadly, you make a good point! I guess I was giving them the benefit of the doubt. My bad.

The marketing questions allow Brooks to get their products to the dealers people are actually buying the most from—not some nefarious plot to eat our brains in exchange for overpriced rubber and canvas Italian bicycle seats, lol. I didn't tell them I get most of my Brooks stuff NOS or used off Ebay... I couldn't care less about the name. If they send me one to test, I'll just tell people it's a C17 with notched top and not bother with any name. The first gen C17 I'm riding on my Sam for the past couple of weeks is about the most comfortable saddle I've ever ridden out of the box, especially considering that the streets dept has left most of my town's roadways half-finished after an orgy of repaving this summer, but then I have a stable full of B17s, B67s, and B68s, and only vaguely recall a couple of Terrys in the distant past, so my experience is rather narrowly stovepiped from one brand.

Interesting. Thanks for the entry link!

As the marketing/management of Brooks is British, I bet they want to tie back to the memory of Coventry Climax. A premier British specialty engine producer who made engines that won Formula 1 and LeMans decades ago.

Actually, per the e-mail Brooks sent today:

"Back in the late 1800's, Brooks Saddles featured a "registered cutting" to relieve pressure on the perineum experienced by some cyclists. These popular saddles went by the name of "Climax" and were sold for decades thereafter, though at some point discontinued for reasons unclear."

I'd test one but bought my 2nd Brooks in > 40 years recently, a B-17 "Aged". Quite nice, RIP 1968 B-72.

-Bandera

Shame the new ones won't last like that. I gotta get a "Select" and see if those fare any better. I never thought modern farming practices would lead to jenky Brooks saddles.

Is next year's model going to be named the "refractory period"