Bike Forums - Hitting Bottom--A Saddle Issue

Bike Forums (https://www.bikeforums.net/forum.php)

- Touring (https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/)

- - Hitting Bottom--A Saddle Issue (https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/347353-hitting-bottom-saddle-issue.html)

It's what I think you need. Does everything the "cool" saddles do but better(for about the same money).

My 2 cents.
Best, John

Quote:

Originally Posted by thebulls (Post 5339696)

on a Selle-Anatomica watershed leather saddle. It's a fabulous saddle and was so comfortable that I was riding my bike with no pain whatsoever

Thanks! I'll check.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jcm (Post 5365450)

BigBlueToe:
That's a pretty normal scenario. A century on a barely formed 17 or Flyer can be a bit of a challenge. Taking rest stops frequently is a good idea. In a year, you probably won't even remember that feeling - unless you have, by that time, bought another Brooks for another bike.:D

Are you certain the sqeak is from the springs? They rarely sqeak. 17's and Flyers can sqeak when the leather works against the steel frame on each side as you push down on the pedal. I wrote about this on another thread, "How's Your Brooks Treating You?"

Test:
Off the bike, grasp the skirts and sqeeze them together. Does the sqeak happen as you move the leather? If so, place your finger tip between the end of the frame and the last rivet. Just touch it gently. Sqeeze the skirts agian, and feel for the vibration with your finger tip as the noise occurs. If the leather is working against the steel, you'll feel it.

A postage stamp-size piece of innertube wedged between the leather and the frame will eliminate this. Have an assistant spread the skirts away from the frame while you stretch the rubber and get it as close to the rivet as possible.

If it is the spring bolts, you can easily loosen the bolts, spray some teflon on the threads, then re-tighten.

Ouch!@#!

I got my first brooks a few months ago, and it was confortable as could be by the end of my first ride (30 miles, and I'm a clyde). I thought I'd found the answer to all life's problems and got a second b17, this one honey-colored, for my new LHT. 30 miles later I have welts on my ass. As far as I know, they were supposed to be identical.

I think YMMV applies not just to different people, but also different instantiations of the same saddle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raven Stands Al (Post 5354628)

I got so charged up by the concept of custom seats that I took out my trusty sheath knife and carved a chunk of leather out of the seats on my Paramount fixed-gear and my Mongoose mountain boat-anchor...

You're going to have to keep in touch down the road and update us on how well these seats are holding up. Every seat I've seen cut that severely has started to sag pretty quickly. They seem to need some of the leather to maintain their shape. I dig the rivets, very burly looking! Don't think my butt could take it though, a brooks with smooth rivets was hard enough.

Right the leather down the middle is the structural support of the the sit bone depresion area.

I just did about 12 days of a few centuries, and worse still a 40 and a 30 in the "wind tunnel". All i can say is that the B17 is never uncomfortable to climb back onto the next day. I wouldn't say that an 80 miles sprint across potholes in a major city that is " in the way" of your rural dream ride, is ever a picnic, or that there is never a prostate thumping landing somewhere in there.

You need to have a good position, the correct tilt to the saddle, and just break the saddle in, with force if necesarry.

"As far as I know, they were supposed to be identical."

Leather is about as identical as the skin you see stretched over people's faces every day, highly individual actually. What probably doesn't vary, however, is the position of your sit bones. Pick them up off saddle one, and beat them (pretty gently really) into your new saddle, get a golf ball and tap it with a hammer. you don't need to be violent about it just harder than your seat would be.

Quote:

Originally Posted by quester (Post 5371872)

I just got a new honey 17 and it's proving to be a stubborn customer. My two other black ones were just perfect out of the box and have gotten even better.