Brooks saddle, should I give it a try?
#51
Senior Member
You do use padded shorts don't you? If so, make sure that you wash them immediately at the end of your days ride, rinsing well, and if in a hotel, roll them up in a dry towel like a sausage and kneel or step on it to get more water out. This helps greatly in shortening the drying time. Place hang near a heat source or air flow, not bunched up.
Use your second pair next day if not dry enough.
Gotta take care of all your nether regions on multi day rides.
Use your second pair next day if not dry enough.
Gotta take care of all your nether regions on multi day rides.
#52
Full Member
Since this thread is still sort of alive after many weeks... I just found it... let me add:
I've had a handful of B17s over the years. Mostly, I get on it and I'm good... but not always.
Every leather saddle, at least in the Brooks like, is different. I sat on a friend's B17 right when he got it new, twenty years ago, and it was hard and nasty, and that's the reason I got into the B17s much later than I had originally planned.
I finally bought one out of anger -- a Fizik plastic saddle, quite comfortable, broke on me after a couple years of use and the LBS guy informed me that was "normal". So I figured what the heck and bought a B17 and it was fantastic from the first ride.
It wore out, I bought another, that took a little longer to adapt but it's good.. it now lives at my parent's house so i have a good bike there I don't need to monkey with, and I got another one... oy vey, it took at least 500 miles to beat that unyielding piece of junk into submission. Another few hundred miles down the road, we're friends.
I also had a couple of Idéale saddles way back when... they're no longer made, but other brands may be more like them... their leather is much thicker and they definitely need some time to wear in. The first one of these was quite comfortable, my current one is meh, but for my short commute it's just fine. The first one I threw out because one of the rivets had pulled through the leather. I had a shoe repair place try to fix it but it didn't work out... mine tend to last about a decade, but it's probably only 5k miles or so for me. I'm 180-190 lbs, nothing out of the ordinary.
Finally, find your width.. you can gain or lose weight all you want, your sitz bones will not move any closer together... so I def. need the 170 mm of the B17...a Colt or Pro is better for some.
cheers -mathias
I've had a handful of B17s over the years. Mostly, I get on it and I'm good... but not always.
Every leather saddle, at least in the Brooks like, is different. I sat on a friend's B17 right when he got it new, twenty years ago, and it was hard and nasty, and that's the reason I got into the B17s much later than I had originally planned.
I finally bought one out of anger -- a Fizik plastic saddle, quite comfortable, broke on me after a couple years of use and the LBS guy informed me that was "normal". So I figured what the heck and bought a B17 and it was fantastic from the first ride.
It wore out, I bought another, that took a little longer to adapt but it's good.. it now lives at my parent's house so i have a good bike there I don't need to monkey with, and I got another one... oy vey, it took at least 500 miles to beat that unyielding piece of junk into submission. Another few hundred miles down the road, we're friends.
I also had a couple of Idéale saddles way back when... they're no longer made, but other brands may be more like them... their leather is much thicker and they definitely need some time to wear in. The first one of these was quite comfortable, my current one is meh, but for my short commute it's just fine. The first one I threw out because one of the rivets had pulled through the leather. I had a shoe repair place try to fix it but it didn't work out... mine tend to last about a decade, but it's probably only 5k miles or so for me. I'm 180-190 lbs, nothing out of the ordinary.
Finally, find your width.. you can gain or lose weight all you want, your sitz bones will not move any closer together... so I def. need the 170 mm of the B17...a Colt or Pro is better for some.
cheers -mathias
Last edited by steine13; 09-27-22 at 10:46 AM.
#53
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#54
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I put a B17 on a 3 or 4 months ago and it was comfortable right from the start on 40-50 mile rides. I found a screaming deal on a C17 on Amazon and decided to try that and did back to back 40 mile rides and it was super nice, like zero discomfort. I think I am going to keep the C17 on my main bike and regulate my B17 to my back up just because the C17 lighter.......but the B17 looks better so maybe not......hmmmm