Live2Die

pm sent. I ride a really worn in b-17 and I love it but on the longer rides it kills with too much pressure. I wish I could ride it for the longer rides so an anatomical option would definitely find a home in my stable and would love to help you guys make them the best they could be!

curiousincident

I wonder if just having a slit that results in a folding down of the leather instead of just having a cut out hole like on the an-atomica might be a more accommodating way to evenly relieve pressure without having edges that chafe? You'd have to find some way to make sure it doesn't pinch when weight is taken off the saddle but it seems possible.

fetch

PM'D!

i have adjusted my bike so the front end pressure isnt as bad cruisin around town casually but when it comes to races and long rides(longer than 3 hours in one sitting) and/or headwinds where i need to get aero. it hurts!

the nose is the only real part of the saddle i have come to accept as is and there is nothing i could do about it. but this new version is of great news to me!

dmb2786

PM sent. I think this idea could very well improve my opinion of brooks saddles, and I would love to provide input for the development of this saddle.

natonium

It would be cool to see the 1890 catalogue images of the original saddle. I did a half hearted search online with no luck...

Edit:
I did go to Brooks' site and I did find some old catalogues but none with a cut out yet.

lotek 

I found some pictures of what looks like a cutout, especially in the 1901 womens saddle.
other than that I didn't see too much on the imperial saddle.

marty

Sixty Fiver

pm sent.

prayers offered.

dobber

How does Brooks figure a saddle like this will stand up to the more Clyde like rider? Will the saddle have lacing holes, would be a nice touch.

If you're interested in having a Clyde (235lb) give one a thrashing, I'd be more than happy to oblige.

PM sent

jockospeed

I have Brooks saddles on 5 bikes (3 B-17's and 2 B5N's). As others have observed, to avoid pressure on the wrists and that sliding off the front feeling, the B-17 needs to be ridden slightly nose up which can cause pressure. This is not a problem with the older B5N's possibly because they are slightly narrower but more likely because the leather has a pebbly texture. The B5N has less of the slip and slide feeling of going off nose than the the B-17 when mounted in the traditional parallel to the top tube position. If your proposed cut out would resolve this issue I think you'd have a winner. I'd sure like to see one.

bward1028

i never really cared for th b17, cause it just didn't seem to fit quite right. some thing about the pro works for me so much better. got one on many of my bikes.
i've never cared for a saddle with a cut out, but i'd probably try a brooks one if it seemed good enough.

visitordesign

i've had a peculiar aversion to brooks saddles for a long time. my anatomy never seemed suited to them. for the most part, my sit-bones and lack of anything remotely resembling an ass has fixed me in fizik arione and selle italia flite gel territory on all of my bikes.

that said, on a well-built narrow saddle like the fizik, a split would be useless--for my anatomy, at least. a nice assos bib or a decent pair of PI shorts on a soft, conforming saddle feels great even on 100+ mile rides.

in contrast, considering a selle italia i have on my kogswell vs. the same saddle (but with a split) on my yamaguchi--there's a night and day difference--even with good shorts. these saddles are way less forgiving than even a mildly broken-in fizik, and on a long ride--that split becomes an asset. the sans-split saddle starts to feel like an anvil in pretty short order. the fizik, however, still outranks even the split selle.

i put in 25-30 miles of either rollers or park riding most weeknights after work. outside, in such a limited amount of saddle time, that night and day difference experienced on longer rides is less evident. however, 25-30 miles on rollers with the non-split selle vs the split selle generally proves to be a pretty effective demonstration of the comfort difference again. even with good shorts, the split makes a difference. in contrast to that though, is again the superior comfort of the fizik in the same scenario.

i'd be interested in being convinced that a brooks could actually work for me, but for some reason, i'm still skeptical.

marqueemoon

I'd be interested to try one, but really my biggest pet peeve with Brooks saddles in general is the how short the rails are. Even with a setback post it can be hard to achieve a good fit.

I_luv_hooters

Free Brooks EVERYBODY!!!!! PM sent.

kylen721

I have always been interested in brooks saddles, but I am a fan of the cutout and did not want to buy a nice saddle only to modify it. Right now I have a lot of saddles available to compare it to which would be nice, but overall I do not have much brooks experience as of right now.

Andrea Men

Thanks to everybody for your messages, but please STOP SENDING SAMPLE REQUESTS, as the response to my posts on different secions of the forums was far beyond my expectations, receiving over 200 sample requests in less than 1 day.

It is therefore quite difficult to respond to all of you with a personal message. I apologize for this, but promise that I will ask to craft 30 or 40 samples instead of just 10, so you might have a higher chance to be included in the focus group.

Those who sent me a PM will receive a reply soon, but I beg for your understanding if it is not possible to write a personal response to all of you.

If you still want to share your opinions on this topic, please feel free to do it, and I'll try to read them all. The attached picture shows me on the left (I am a man!) and Eric on the right while crafting the first samples in November 2007. The other image shows one of the pages of the 1890 Brooks cataloge, where the Imperial, Climax, Long Distance and many more saddles with "registered cutting" are featured.

It is great to take part to these forums!

Andrea Men

Here are the 2 images!

Sixty Fiver

It appears that the new saddle is quite simply, gorgeous and I am looking forward to testing one of these in one way or another.

Cheers!

dirtyphotons

big ups to brooks and andrea for doing this.

I_luv_hooters

AWESOME! so when do we all get free Brooks saddles??? Can I have a few for my friends too? They're sending PMs too. Also, I want a couple for my mom and dad.

Bala

What's up with that?^^
This seems like a very good way for a company to get some honest feedback from the people who actually use their product. Sure some people are looking for a freebie, but I can assure you not everyone.

whipitgood

I believe it is a form of humor.
It made me laugh.

Bala

Oh really? <that's sarcasm

Just saying, hoots made a "humorous" comment 6 posts up. Just didn't think it was necessary.

I_luv_hooters

HAHAHA shut up - I think the funny thing was how much ass-kissing there was here by people trying to get a free saddle. I never even sent a PM because I knew it would be fruitless. Don't hold your breath waiting by the mailbox for your "tester" Brooks saddle just because you were one of the 200 beggars.. This thread was blasted into instant outerspace by people writing paragraphs on why they should be one to receive a saddle. I just had to laugh.

marqueemoon

Agreed. If the OP really wanted to maximize the effectiveness of this little exercise they could have set up an online survey, posted the link here, and used that to gather data and screen for prospective testers in their target demographic instead instead of whining about how many PMs they're getting.

Eric Hanus

like this?
...taken from the chicago forums