All,

I see that the Brooks saddles seem to be the bomb for touring. Is that a steadfast rule? Why are they the best? Does everybody use them? Or can you recommend other saddles for touring? They are pricey.

Thanks

butts each make their own choices . its beween your backside and whatever saddles you find you like ..


Brooks saddles were cheaper in 1950, but so was a lot of other stuff..

visit a Bike shop and sit on a variety of saddles they have .. the LBS here has Take-Offs ,
new but they came with new bikes ,& the bike buyer wanted something else,

so it's cheaper than the same part with the display tag on it.

Ask a hundred different posteriors which saddle is prefered, probably get a 150 answers. I've toured with three different Brooks models, a Terry-liberator, serfas Rx, sella Anatomica and a Gilles Berthoud - all served their purpose well. Based upon my bike fit and riding position, prefer a leather saddle. The GB is my current favorite; very comfortable, but no hidden magic carpet. Ride what is comfortable for you, I ride what works for you & don't much care what someone may think of my posterior.

As suggested, try on various saddles at the LBS. Buy one maybe. With a lot of luck, you'll strike pay dirt the first time. More likely you'll be trying on something else after 50-100 miles. Brooks is so popular for a good reason. Might up your odds of getting it right the first time by biting the Brooks bullet. If you do, follow the break in instructions exactly. And persevere.

Every saddle has a sweet spot. Find it by tweaking the rail position and tilt. This won't work if your bike is not a reasonably good fit, saddle to bar.

Unfortunately this can only be solved with trial and error as everyone is different. I personally am a fan of the ever popular Brooks B17 but your best bet is to find a shop that offers demo saddles, that way you can try a number of different ones without buying them all.

I've enjoyed my Brooks. Granted, they can be pricey, but it's a saddle that will grow to match you and possibly last a lifetime.

The Brooks is the only saddle that will last through 40 years of use, so it's not expensive.

If you find the right shape for you ..

Brooks has new competitors , seeking market share ..
such as . French Berthoud is even pricier .. its a reheated market..

lots of other companies making a leather saddle of some sort.

I'm a Brooks fan (currently have 3) and find the advantages of the lack of sweatiness and comfort really make a difference on a tour.

But they aren't for everyone. My wife had one for three years and kept putting it on and off her bike. I reckon it takes at least 4 or 500 miles for it to start moulding (I think Honey colour moulds quicker but can't evidence that), but worth it in the end !(sorry)

Basically, whatever suits you, go with. i did my first tour on an old Madison gel saddle and it was fine, if a bit sweaty in the heat.

Add Terry to your "to try" list.
They're relatively in-expensive, light, and very comfortable.
We have four on our various bikes.
CJ

I, personally, hate Brooks saddles with a passion. The Brooks B17 is truly one of the two worst saddles I've ever ridden! If you don't like the price of a Brooks you won't like any of the saddles that I use, unfortunately.

I've said it before, and now I have recovered, so... I hate Brooks saddles!
They're more like having a pet you constantly have to groom. Special waxes and creams, tightening or relacing them... "Wear them in"? Give me a break!
You want an extra hobby, yeah go 19th century tech!

Oh hell, LHT's are fugly too! Look at those colours, **** brown, canada goose **** green... peleeese!

No wonderthey're called "Surly":
surly[ sur-lee ]
adjective [sur·li·er, sur·li·est.]
1. churlishly rude or bad-tempered: a surly waiter.
2. unfriendly or hostile; menacingly irritable: a surly old lion.
3. dark or dismal; menacing; threatening: a surly sky.

oops!

The rule is.......There are no rules.......You need to try some and see what works for you.

Just last week in Santa Barbara(Refugio),I ran into a guy riding a gel seat.....TURNED AROUND BACKWARDS!!!!.....I thought it was an anti-theft device.....NOPE!....

I am now cured of that horrid feeling.......I will NEVER question anybody about saddle choices again.....EVER!

Add me to the list of Brooks haters. I had one many years ago and it was OK but nothing special right out of the box. As it broke in I liked it less and less to the point where I actually hated it when it was way well broken in.

I do not think the price of a Brooks B-17 is bad, if it suits you better than it did me. They last a very long time for most folks. To me other than the lack of comfort that I found, one of the bigger negatives is weight. They are pretty heavy.

I am not particularly fussy about saddles. I have toured on a number of saddles that came with my bikes and would go coast to coast on any of them. Some of them took a little breaking in of my butt to fit them, but after a few hundred miles they were fine. If picking a new saddle I'd probably buy another Prologo Kappa Evo PAS, a lowish priced road race saddle.

I have several brooks that are thirty years old, and will probably last another ten years. All on older bikes, I did not buy all of them new. However, my newer brooks don't seem as though they will make it past the ten year mark. Thinner leather than any of my vintage saddles, my five year old flyer is already halfway run out on the threads, and it needs to be tightened every 500 miles or so. And I have had the leather fatigue and come apart at the nose on one of the first "pre softened" brooks bought years ago, it lasted about three years. And before any lectures on saddle care, almost every bike in my fleet runs leather, Ideal and Brooks. Its just the saddles I have purchased in the last ten years or so that have had issues.

Even so, I still find the flyer to be very comfortable for touring, and will use it till its dead.

Sorry to hear that, shipwreck.

One of my Brooks saddles is actually not a Brooks. It's an RHM. RHM is a bikeforums member and a friend of mine. He takes old frames from worn out leather saddles and re-covers them artfully. Each one is unique. Here is his web page.

All good info. The Terry looks interesting too. Just no shops anywhere close that carries them.

Its not a problem really noglider

I also like to stretch leather over old rails, used 5/8" thick elk on two of them, and they are indestructible even when ridden sopping wet. Not as refined looking as your friends, but I still get admiration from those who like indestructible things.

Brooks! Hack patooey! Actually they look elegant and dignified. Never worked for me. I'm neither.

Wallingford Bikes and Rene Herse Cycles both offer 6-month return policies on the Brooks and Gilles Berthoud leather saddles they sell.

https://www.wallbike.com/catalog/saddles
https://www.renehersebicycles.com/NPP%20Saddles.htm

I have plenty of experience with several Brooks models, and my slotted 10-year old titanium B-17 is fabulously well broken-in and consequently very comfortable on the bike with bars just above seat level. However my old Team Pro and Swift don't suit my rear these days. OTOH, my 24-year old daughter loves her Team Pro that's much older than she is. My relatively new (and more expensive) Gilles Berthoud titanium on a slightly more aggressive bike is rapidly gaining ground on the B-17 for comfort, and it's unlikely to need that return policy. It also seems to need less nose-up adjustment for me compared to Brooks. It has VERY thick leather, so I expect it to last a long time with proper care that I don't mind doing once or twice a year on leather saddles.

One other leather saddle that that is worth mentioning is Selle An-Atomica. They generally come slotted, have very long rails which avoids the rearward adjustment problem that some have with Brooks, and many think they are very comfortable right out of the box.

I'm pretty saddle permissive, but I can't ride long distances on a Brooks. (I relegated my last one to a town bike thirty-five years ago.) They distribute the load fairly evenly across the area of contact, which is fine for short rides. However, on longer rides that can result in compression of critical nerves and vasculature in the perineum, which can have serious health consequences. For rides of less than 100 km, I don't care what I ride on. Longer than that, I want something that prevents any load from being placed on soft tissues.

I think that's why so many of today's tourists like Brooks. A typical touring day is in the 30-60 mile range for most people, and Brooks are fine, even comfortable, for those sort of days. That's especially true for folks who tend to ride with a low (<90 rpm) cadence.

B carefree, that's interesting. I have the opposite preference. The harder the saddle, the better for me. I had a soft gel saddle that didn't cause me any pain, but I had achy balls the day following. It took me a while to see the correlation. Ditched the saddle, and problem went away. It was scary until I figured it out. Walking was hard.

Great! Now I have that Billy Ray Cyrus song in my head! Achy Breaky Balls!!!

I am a Brooks user. Brooks saddles are on all my diamond frames bikes including my carbon fibre racer and my mountain bike. My Surly Long Haul Trucker has a B67 on it as I like to "chase the dirt" so to speak on my Surly. They work for me and that is what matters, to me

Andrew