Cheap Alternative To Brooks Saddles?
 

https://www.gusti-leather.com/bike/bike/saddles/
I just came across this site. Has anybody ridden on one of their saddles?

Brooks has been doing saddles for a very long time and they tend to fulfill the needs of many, many riders. When something has been perfected to the standards set by the company, and is continuously received by the consumer in a positive light at numbers that sustain the company, it says a whole lot about the product. It may be expensive, but it is very, very good.

Seems as though Gusti has a thing for goat leather. I think you ought try one for several thousand miles and report back with results.

With leather saddles, you get what you pay for

the site notes the saddle are water buffalo leather, not goat.

So you can take the change for a $75 B17 look alike and if it works your good or get a B17 for 125 at universal cycles and know you are good

Have not ridden these. Butt, try it. And let us know.
I have ridden suspended leather saddles (many were vintage, no longer in production) from Brooks, Gyes, Ideale, Fuji (Belt), Palace, Wrights, Troxel, Selle Anatomica and RHMsaddles. Maybe others.
Everyone has preferences. I have never ridden a water buffalo, nor a goat - to my knowledge - only cowhide of varying thicknesses and compliance.

I prefer cut-outs in my leather saddles, see none with that option at gusti-leather.com

I've ridden Brooks, Wright, Middlemore, and Belt leather saddles. I prefer Brooks. I find them more comfortable and more durable. I've never had a non-Brooks leather saddle last as long as a Brooks (50+ years). They seem to sag, tear, or otherwise become uncomfortable much sooner than Brooks.

If you want a near-perfect Brooks B17 send me a PM. I rode it for about 6 months and was never able to get comfortable. Saddle, wrench, and a container of Proofhide (but no box).

Mark

I've ridden Brooks, Persons, Leppers, Sella Italia, Selle Anatomica, Tops and Gyes.

Last Brooks broke in asymmetrically. Love my two Persons No. 77 Deluxe - sadly, they don't seem to be available anymore. The Gyes TI-17A rides nice with exquisite workmanship. I like the Selle Anatomicas (have 3) and as a bonus they have consumer-replaceable tops should it ever come to that. The Lepper Tourer and Sella Italia Eopca - pretty, but the derriere says meh. The Tops was junk.

Brooks was bought out by Selle Royal several years ago. Selle Royal kept the factory in Leeds and the employes from what I hear. I currently ride the non leather versions. Gilles Berthoud saddles are probably as well made. I believe they are French.

A romanticized version of Brooks to be sure. “The company” was sold to Raleigh’s investment group in the 1960s, was sold and liquidated in the late ‘90s, and revived in ‘02, as noted upthread, by Selle Royal. Sure, today they do things mostly the old fashioned way, but I question how much of “the company” is still really in the place. Leather tanning and Cambium saddles are done in Italy, for example.

When I was a kid, there were all kinds of cheap, plastic Brooks saddles around, and certainly the elite sports segment was ruled by Italian brands. It’s only been fairly recently that Brooks was re-emergent as, the way I see it, a lifestyle brand. That’s not to say the saddles are uncomfortable, but it does raise questions about what kind of “special sauce” they may have, if any. Personally, I don’t give 2 bits to Brooks at any price, and would certainly never pay what they’re asking for those things. Brooks: better than wood, anyway.

I love my Brooks (B17 and Swift) but I like my Berthoud even more, but it is a lot more than the brooks, but it is rebuildable https://berthoudcycles.fr/en/527-lea...lor-black.html

I currently have the two Brooks saddles. The Team professional and the B17. I find both comfortable. I have one complaint about the B17 however. I should have purchased one with copper rivets. One of the rivets is not sitting flush. I tried banging it down. Unlike in the case of the Team Professional, it would not budge.

Chaadster, not sure there is a special sauce to Brooks manufacturing process, I simply believe they have not strayed too far from the standard upon which the company was built. Their saddles are not for everyone, no question about that, but neither is pizza or blue jeans, but they do have a winning tradition in the world of food and fashion.

In 1975 my first touring bike, a Schwinn Super Sport (odd name for a tourer, no?) had a Brooks B15n mounted and it was reliably comfortable. Started racing a few years later and the Raleigh Competition I raced came with a Brooks Professional. I replaced it with a Turbo saddle and all was well as the Brooks was too far forward for me to get off the rivets. Got back into touring a few years ago and was still using the Turbo saddle, but something changed when I made my own touring frame and I tried the venerable B17 and found it to be uncommonly comfortable for mostly seated riding.

Again, they ain't for all riders, but those that enjoy them typically swear by them. As for an off-brand, it may work out, it may not. If you have no experience with a leather saddle, then it may not give you accurate feedback on what a leather saddle can do since it is an off-brand product.

Persons and Lepper got their start in saddles in the 1890s. Sella Italia molds their leather on 1914 tooling. Ideale is using tooling from before WWII.

Snerk.

The Selle Anatomica also is rebuildable and offers rubber as well as 'solid' & cut-out leather tops and factory & aftermarket carbon fiber rails.

Noted the thread title is "Cheap Alternative to Brooks Saddles", and neither the Berthoud nor Selle Anatomica is colloquially cheap.

I keep hoping for a Bike Forums report on the Tabor saddle from Portugal. They're kind of an upstart, having only been in the leather saddle business since 1965.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...5ff0a93c1f.png

A Brooks B17 is $105 on Amazon right now. I am not looking around on google for any other prices, but I am confident it costs more and less elsewhere.
Anyways, how is the website that the OP linked any cheaper than Brooks?

Brooks has other saddles for more than $105, and this other saddle company has the same.
This thing looks pretty similar to a Brooks an costs $106...https://www.gusti-leather.com/real-l...own-2f64-20-42

Also, whats with the saddle model names?

To me, a Brooks is like:
https://sheldonbrown.com/images/stonesaddle.jpeg

Butt,...unequaled in durability. Lasts eons if the carriage is rebuildable.

I just can't. I had a hard, deadly ass-hatchet and I gave it away. Friend did the same. He was doing 20K+ miles per year and he heard the Brooks hype. Bought one, suffered for a while and gave it to someone who had an ass for the saddle, as they say.

I like some of the Selle Italia butt resters. Friend had 2 Flite Gel saddles new in the box. They aren't squishy gel, just a bit of give to them. And they have a cut-out.
I bought them both, put one on the main road bike until it started looking haggard, then I switched it to the mtb and put the other new one on the roadie.

I had a different Selle Italia, firm leather with a cut-out but after years the base started breaking down where the rails go in. Still have it on one road bike but it's noisy.

I have several B17s and a Velo Orange Touring Saddle (buffalo hyde). I bought the VO because I was looking for a "cheaper alternative" like the OP.

Now that my VO is broken in, I like it alot. It is every bit as comfortable as any saddle I've ever used. That said, breaking it in was a lesson in futility. It was so hard, and the leather is so thick, that I couldn't hardly stand riding for any distance. It was more painful than any new Brooks I've ever had. After trying to break it in the normal way (maybe over as long as a couple years) I finally put it on my indoor trainer. I ride my trainer for 30 minutes of intervals at a time, 1 - 2 times a week, and I figured I could tolerate it for that long and then have a few days for my sit bones to recover. After being on the bike trainer for 10+ years of consistent use it's finally broken in and comfortable.

Good luck with your "cheaper alternative."

And about the same price on eBay (including shipping).

Anymore, I'm not sure what the point is in buying a knock-off. Get the real thing.

...I have not ridden on one of their saddles. Their production is sourced from India. And they make a big deal about sustainability and transparency.
I do have a couple of the old VO leather saddles, that were sourced from Asia, but I think it was Taiwan, not India. Those are quite high quality, but they stopped selling them at VO.

I have zero experience with saddles made from goat leather.

Goats approve.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3eab53353.jpeg

But loses to paper. :D

Butt, paper, scissors?