Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
Still get them I think
Cycling things that you wish were still available
- Thread starter Dogtrousers
- Start date
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Still get them I think
Old Wheeler
Regular
Flint catchers. Used them successfully for many years. Theory was that sharp objects were picked up a turn of a wheel, then driven in by the second or more turns. The flint catchers knocked off the object before the second turn thus preventing a puncture. I repeat " in theory " though I have to say they were were quite successful for me.
Old Wheeler
Regular
Still have them. 1 chrome pair and 1 black pair hanging in my my boiler cupboard. Not used for years. :-)
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Not so.
Many of Brooks traditional designs require a traditional seatpin, not a micro-adjust post.
The one Brooks supply with a saddle is crap. Stamped pressed steel of very low quality. It will slip, and then become useless.
They sell an aftermarket one which is better, but that's the best part of £20 on something they should have included for free.
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/saddles...-clamp-78-inch-222-mm-for-double-rail-byb105/
Very possible, and in fact common.
We could also talk about the number that are built misaligned. Crap quality control.
They were OK for £25. For £125, they are a ripoff.
Alex321
Guru
- Location
- South Wales
And yet many people reckon they are the most comfortable saddles around, and wouldn't have anything else.
I've never tried one, so have no personal opinion on it.
They're comfortable for a lot of people including me - I don't mind them. But they are badly made and there's no point in saying otherwise.
Brooks was taken over by Selle Italia about ten years ago and while the products stayed more or less the same the marketing started becoming all hipsterish and the price doubled or trebled overnight. I can't blame the owners for wanting to capitalise on Brooks heritage or charging what people are gullible enough to pay but pretending they're good for what they cost is wrong.
Fab Foodie
hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
- Location
- Kirton, Devon.
I'm a fan, have 2 B17, love em. The eldest is 1984 vintage and still in use....
Yes me as well. Fantastic saddles with a design that has been around and proven for a century or more. My B17s use standard micro adjust seatposts. some of the sprung ones need a special collar as suggested above, but I’ve no experience of them. They don’t suite everyone and a marmite response is common. The more recent ones from the last decade are thinner leather which breaks in more quickly but may not last as long. When they were taken over the price irritatingly doubled with no change to the product, although they are now no more expensive than other premium saddles. The Spa badged clones are certainly better value although I found them very hard, the one I had was a bit squeaky and I swapped back to a B17.
united4ever
Veteran
Aldi cycle tops and shorts but the version from circa 2016.
Jenkins
Legendary Member
- Location
- Felixstowe
The original version of the Endura Hummvee short.While the current Hummvee II is still a good baggy short, subtle changes have been made to the pockets and the layout that makes them less practical (for me at least).
And going back to the Ronhill Bikesters - I still have one unused and packaged pair ready to replace one of the three pairs I have for commuting when they finally disintegrate.
And going back to the Ronhill Bikesters - I still have one unused and packaged pair ready to replace one of the three pairs I have for commuting when they finally disintegrate.
Old Wheeler
Regular
bonzobanana
Guru
I bought a bike a few years ago which came with a Brooks saddle for £30, the saddle was the original saddle fitted to the bike and had clearly been used for a huge amount of miles. I took off the saddle and used some leather wax/restorer on it and it came up very nice indeed and I sold it for about £30 net so it basically paid for the bike but it certainly wasn't badly made the metal parts and leather were very good quality and that was from a bike from mid 80s to early 90s. I've no idea what modern Brooks saddles are like but there was certainly a time when they were very high quality. I only sold it as it was valuable and liked the idea of having the bike for free when the saddle was sold plus had loads of other saddles to use. Also I've read that Brooks saddles bed in to the original owner as they shape the leather over time which is great but makes secondhand purchases less appealing to use.
A quick look at Chain Reaction and their Brooks saddles and most of the saddles are scoring very highly by purchasers and to be honest the pictures look much nicer than the Brooks saddle I sold.
https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/brooks-england?keywordRedirectTerm=brooks&_requestid=634118
@bonzobanana I am not saying they are all wrong, but many of them are/were built out of alignment and many designs require a non-micro adjust clamp. You might get lucky, you might not. That's OK in something inexpensive, but they aren't any more.
Like you, not a Brooks fan. I spent serious coin on a swift with Ti rails for a flat-bar tourer back in 2007. Less than three years later the rails snapped and I thanked the Lord. Saddles are very personal, but this thing was like the Blackadder sketch about sitting on spikes. Ugly heavy overpriced ass chisels.
