chipcom 

It's actually just another step toward the new world order.

AZORCH

I just opened a package fro Great Britain a moment ago to reveal the Brooks Cambium C17 saddle. Photos and details to come very soon.

AZORCH

This is what arrived in the mail today.



Brooks seemed to be concerned about initial reactions and I have to say that upon opening the package, the experience was a little underwhelming.



The saddle does come wrapped in this cool bag, though. And there's all this other marketing stuff that I haven't even looked over yet.



OK, so here's the saddle itself. Reminds me of the shape of a Selle Regal - which is fine by me since that happens to be one of my saddles of choice.



The sides of the saddle are flexible - interesting!



The fabric upper seems to be embedded into the Vulcanized Rubber platform.



A bit heavier than I expected... but also much lighter than a Brooks Professional, right?



Overall pretty well crafted... until I noticed this worrisome spot on the underside, where the saddle upper is fastened to the bracket. At first I thought it was a crack, and naturally enough I thought to myself, "Self, there's no frickin' way you're riding this thing." Upon closer inspection, it appears that the person manning the power screwdriver got a little overzealous and marred the surface as the driver was being removed. Still makes me wonder if that has created a stress point that will fail. This one thing kind of mars the satisfaction I initially felt.

Italuminium

Looks like a quaint, tweedy Windsor kind of Regal. Which bike are you going to put it on?

rootboy 

I guess the quality control department sent out the rejects to the initial field testers.
Hey, it's Vulcanized it Italy. Go figure.

Seriously ...,good luck with the test rides Azorch.

AZORCH

Y'know, I'd originally planned to try it out on my International that I converted to a three-speed (and I may still do that), but first I'm going to try it out on my Boulder Brevet. I want to know if the flexible sides are a plus or a minus for me on a long-ish ride.

Chombi

I wonder if they can use that nice aluminum cantle on their leather saddles too..... Looks like it could be a very nice replacement for their chromed steel cantle plates.
I suspect that most of the weight might be coming from the dense rubber base. I'm a bit surprised how heavy it still is, I was hoping for something below 400 grams, but I guess light weight was never really what Brooks saddles were all about anyway.....

AZORCH

I sure like the look of it... very "space age-y"

Chombi

As they are advertising the "Vulcanized" construction so much in their literature and the saddle itself, I'm now suspecting that the fabric cover is not just glued (cold vulcanized) on to the rubber base, but maybe a stronger "hot vulcanized" bonding process might have been used, so you pretty much have to wear off the fabric down to the rubber base (kinda like a reverse, inside-out process of how a tire might wear, to wear out the saddle out where in this case, you will be wearing the "chords" out to get to the rubber.....

gomango

Cool.

Thanks for sharing.

Price is going to be a major factor for me.

Especially since I can get a nice Regal for peanuts.

$79 for a saddle that fits me perfectly.

https://www.velomine.com/index.php?ma...oducts_id=2053

Darth Lefty 

This Cambium saddle is pretty but I don't understand it. Isn't nearly every other bicycle saddle in the world slick-surfaced? How is this going to be comfortable, and not just chafe?

Although I also recently saw this thing from Prologo, which I don't understand either. It's only grippy on your you-know-what. It looks like some flip-flops I had once.

gomango

Ewwwww, that Prologo looks like a no go for me.

Sandpaper in that area is something I can do without.

The Cambium looks like a great shape though. Can't wait to hear ride reports.

rootboy 

Maybe there's a special "Velcro" pair of shorts that goes with it?

cyclotoine

Cambium looks great. Looking forward to ride reports. The prologo also looks great. If you have ever raced triathlon you will understand that saddle. They call it Hang two my friends, 90% of the time your boys are nowhere near those grips. You might think it sounds uncomfortable, but when you are sustaining you are going at yout 80-90 threshold there is a lot less pressure down there due to the force you are exerting pushing on the pedals.

AZORCH

OK, so this is my totally unfair first impression, which I have gotten from riding up and down the street to fine tune the height and set back.



1. The Cambrium fits pretty much like a Selle Regal. And there you have it in a nutshell! Perhaps it is very slightly wider at the sit bones, but if it is then it's not by much. My first thought though is that if you like the Regal, you'll probably like this saddle too.

2. I had to adjust the height to be about 1/2 centimeter higher than my Regal for some reason. That could simply be because I'm not used to this saddle; neither was I warmed up for a ride. One nice thing is that I can adjust the set back a tiny bit further than I can on my newer model Regal - I did not compare to my vintage Regals, by the way, but I will just in case there's a difference that I don't immediately recall. I want to say right now that I find it ironic that none of my initial reactions were a comparison to the Brooks saddles I have mounted on some of my bikes - only the Regal. At any rate, I do like the ability to set up with a slightly longer reach, which appeals to my own riding fit.

3. Just pedaling up and down the street I did not notice anything - pro or con - relating to the flexibility of the saddle. Perhaps my opinion will change with a longer ride.

4. I have to admit that it's going to take me a while to get used to looking at this pale, beige color rather than the honey brown I normally have mounted. It's purely an aesthetic response and it could probably grow on me with time and acceptance, but it is weird at the moment.

5. I don't mind the rough texture - in fact, I rather like it. Sometimes I'm not a big fan of the really slick saddle surfaces to begin with. I think if you ride in shorts - essentially in non-Lycra clothing - there will be those who like the grippiness. I wonder if the sides will chafe or chew up riding shorts though... on the short ride tonight I didn't notice any friction though - maybe that's a product of the flex, but again, a longer ride will begin to sort things out. I'll be doing that tomorrow, after I finish the stack of interview candidates I've got set up.

More reporting soon.

gomango

Good explanation.

Thanks.

gomango

Thanks.

How are we going to match bar tape?

AZORCH

Top one looks like a decent match, but cotton would look good with this saddle.


https://www.amazon.com/XLC-Bar-Tape-G...d_sim_sbs_sg_5

F red

"Natural" cork should also be a close match.

pastorbobnlnh 

It piques my interest. Looking forward to a ride report after 20+ miles. What kind of shorts/pants were you wearing? Any friction?

AZORCH

I was wearing running shorts at the time because I was just trying to dial in the saddle height and set back. But no, perhaps a little surprisingly I didn't notice any awkward friction (which I was paying attention to.) Quite the contrary, in fact. I did feel firmly planted though, and that was pleasant.

Unless it pours tomorrow, I'll get in 20 or 30 miles in the afternoon. Everything I've related thus far doesn't really give this product a fair shake, of course. It'll take miles to reach a decision - remember, if you had a brand spanking new B-17 you would probably not feel the same on your initial ride as you would 500 miles later. The other important factor is that this is a saddle we're talking about and, as they say: YMMV!

unworthy1

My 2 or 3 cents:
it looks so much like a Regal cause it's basically another product from the same people, despite all the Brooks branding.

I wonder what the long-term wear will be of what is essentially the substitution of vulcanized rubber for plastic in the shell material.

The bonded fabric will probably wear away in the high friction zones of the sides and next on the sit-bone area of the top...then you'll be on-contact with the rubber. How long will that take? You testers will find out for them.

Yes, the little scar from assembly tool does cause a little stress-riser, but I wouldn't be too concerned since there seems to be plenty of alloy there.

What concerns me (long term) is the steel (right?) rails shoved into the alloy cantle: that dissimilar material combo is just asking for galling and corrosion, the wetter it gets the worse it'll be. But I'd bet the top falls apart well before the metal parts crack from corrosion.

Upside to this construction is it looks like the top is screwed onto the undercarriage with Torx "Chicago binder bolts" so you could possibly swap in a replacement top when it does wear out...if Brooks allows...and maybe some other colors/fabrics by then, too (?)

OK, that was more like 4-cents....

Chombi

The best view we have of the saddle so far and it looks very handsome. Shape-wise, it looks very "sexy" in this pic. plus the modern canle design looks refreshing.
I'm not looking for a textile saddle, but give me that thing with a leather cover on it and I might be first in line to buy one!

Chombi

lostarchitect 

More photos, please! Let's see some shots where we can see the whole saddle from various angles on the bike.

AZORCH

Coming!