Bad Brooks saddle???
05-19-13 | 11:31 AM
#26
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 70
Likes: 0
Compared to tires or rims a brooks is dirt cheap. I was on a $95 Specialized (the peen hole one) for yrs, not realizing that it was not normal to stop every 3-5km and hop off the bike in searing As* pain. Thought it was me getting older- 37.
Then I started reading and found out this is not normal, that people ride for 24 hours almost straight.
So I ponied up and bought a brooks flyer for $150 bucks- now I can ride as long as I want/can no searing a*s pain.
My tires are 50 bucks each and I have gotten flats, I think the brooks should last longer than tires.
BTW: I almost think the flyer is total overkill and that the regular saddle would be fine, mind you I have never smiled as much going over bumps.
Worst case scenario, you loose 20-30 bucks if the store won't return it and you sell it on craigslist in under an hour.
Then I started reading and found out this is not normal, that people ride for 24 hours almost straight.
So I ponied up and bought a brooks flyer for $150 bucks- now I can ride as long as I want/can no searing a*s pain.
My tires are 50 bucks each and I have gotten flats, I think the brooks should last longer than tires.
BTW: I almost think the flyer is total overkill and that the regular saddle would be fine, mind you I have never smiled as much going over bumps.
Worst case scenario, you loose 20-30 bucks if the store won't return it and you sell it on craigslist in under an hour.
05-19-13 | 04:24 PM
#27
My Brooks B-17 has a crooked frame. When the nose is pointed off to the right, the back is centered & almost but not quite level. When I figured this out, it was too late to send it back to the fly-by-night internet seller. Since figuring out the nose has to point to the right, I've made peace with it. Can do long-milers (for me anyway, ~50 miles) in comfort w/o bike specific pants. So it's OK. Maybe it's a feature -can sit somewhat sidesaddle & avoid crushing tender parts.
05-19-13 | 04:46 PM
#29
Senior Member
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 3,335
Likes: 15
05-19-13 | 08:32 PM
#30
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 6,970
Likes: 59
From: Catskills/Brooklyn, NY
Bikes: See sig
I don't like saddles that sag or hammock. I like them to be basically flat and stay flat, so that I can easily shift myself fore/aft to relieve pressure point as I ride.
Tensioned leather saddles are very much prone to sagging under normal use. Look at any well-used Brooks saddle, it'll probably look a bit like a Pringles potato chip. Some Brooks will sag all the way to the rails if the user doesn't discard it soon enough. The tension bolt in a Brooks saddle is limited in it's capacity to compensate for the gradual-but-certain elongation of the leather saddle.
To be fair, many bicyclists love the sag/hammock feel of a broken-in Brooks saddle.
A selling point of Brooks saddles is the great width of the saddle. However, you don't need more width for comfort, and often the cause of discomfort on a narrower saddle is not the saddle width.
OP, if you have a $10 saddle that suits you, then you should get a few spare saddles and count yourself very lucky. Don't fix it if it ain't broke.
Tensioned leather saddles are very much prone to sagging under normal use. Look at any well-used Brooks saddle, it'll probably look a bit like a Pringles potato chip. Some Brooks will sag all the way to the rails if the user doesn't discard it soon enough. The tension bolt in a Brooks saddle is limited in it's capacity to compensate for the gradual-but-certain elongation of the leather saddle.
To be fair, many bicyclists love the sag/hammock feel of a broken-in Brooks saddle.
A selling point of Brooks saddles is the great width of the saddle. However, you don't need more width for comfort, and often the cause of discomfort on a narrower saddle is not the saddle width.
OP, if you have a $10 saddle that suits you, then you should get a few spare saddles and count yourself very lucky. Don't fix it if it ain't broke.
05-20-13 | 09:17 AM
#32
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 3,862
Likes: 2,218
All my bike shorts have some level of padding in them, so I used the same bike shorts on my LHT when I got a Brooks B17. For months I could never get comfortable. I could not seem to sit right on my sit bones, too much pressure up front in the drops. I just kept telling myself I needed to break it in. Then, one day I had to run an errand in a pinch, and just hopped on the B17 with no cycling shorts and was like "Holy s**!" It felt amazingly good. It was probably already broken in at that point because I used the Proofide as instructed and had about 300 miles on it. Since then, I only use compression shorts with NO PADDING on my Brooks. I can do 80+ miles without issue. After that, I understood what all the hype was about. I see now why everyone raved about it. It's tricky to get positioned correctly fore/aft and angled, but when it's dialed it, its like saddle nirvana.
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