Leather saddles

[Fab Foodie]

My plastic saddle is cheap, comfortable, waterproof and light. Everything a Brooks isn't.

True, but isn't a Brooks the green choice? Semi-organic, biodegradable and made in the UK ;-)

 

[Pale Rider]

My Nidd is exactly the same. I don't know how much to tighten the tensioning bolt though.

I've erred on the side of caution because I read that there is a limited number of times you can do that. The problem is that every 100 miles or so the tensioning bolt becomes a little loose and needs retightening.

I'm thinking of applying a little threadlock to try and stop it working loose.

There's a lock nut on mine to prevent the Allen bolt moving after you've set it.

 

[User482]

True, but isn't a Brooks the green choice? Semi-organic, biodegradable and made in the UK ;-)

Do you know how leather is made? Anyway, my 20-year old saddle was made in Italy, just like half of the Brooks range...

 

[Pale Rider]

Do you know how leather is made?.

When a mummy cow and a daddy cow like each other very much?

 

[Tenacious Sloth]

All my saddles are leather. Brooks Swift on the Merida, Selle Anatomica on the CAADX and Brooks Flyer Imperial on the Hybrid.

For me the benefit is simple, a leather saddle will conform to your shape over a period of time (which seems to vary greatly between individual saddles, possibly due to leather thickness), whereas a plastic saddle cannot.

Graham

 

[Aravis]

Switching to a Flying Fortress has changed my life - no exaggeration. From the word go it was the most comfortable saddle I'd ever sat on and it has only got better. After about 2000 miles it barely looks used.

I'm not sure if this thread was intended to provoke a Brooks vs Spa rivalry; I might've thought of trying a Spa in the future, but some of the comments here suggest to me that Brookses may be better made and I think I'll stay with them if I ever need another.

If I feel underneath the saddle when pedalling, the give in the leather with every movement of the pelvic bones is very apparent. It simply moves wherever the bones want it to go, whilst remaining fully supportive. I'm sure this must be the reason that they're so forgiving - in my experience of course.

 

[Pale Rider]

I wondered about Brooks v Spa.

Comparing like models, a B17 is best part of eighty quid, against £35 for a Nidd.

Comments on here suggest the B17 may be the better product.

Quite possibly, the more expensive item is often the best.

I'd like to do a back(side) to back comparison, but won't for two reasons.

I'm not paying £80 for another saddle, and even if I did, it would take me years to do the mileage needed to assess both.

 

[Gravity Aided]

I think a lot of saddles made of leather have the same characteristics, but I think Brooks uses less of the leather in a hide, using only that which is of the same thickness, as well as having respect for behavior of the grain, and the importance of saddle treatments during production.Being a large fellow, I also have to say that Brooks uses better steel than many of the Chinese offerings on Amazon or some such, although I've had fine luck with mine, I've known people who have had problems. Yet I also have heard fine things about Spa Cycles line of saddles, and some prefer them.

 

[jefmcg]

I'm interested that people need to adjust the tensioning bolt on their Spas. My Brooks is 30,000km* old <insert "nearly broken in" joke here> and I've never had to touch that. I broke it in gently, just dubbin and my arse (there is all sorts of advice on the web about soaking it in oil or water or baking it), and have mostly covered the saddle if I've had to leave the bike out in the rain (no cover while riding it in the rain, but between me and the mudguard, it doesn't get very wet).

.... I've just checked the brooks site about tensioning, and it says it should be flat when viewed from the side. My saddle, unsurprisingly, has a gentle dip in the middle - if I place a book across the top of the saddle, there is about a 5mm gap in the middle. Brooks says this means it needs tensioning, but is there any reason to do that if I am comfortable as it is?

(I'm a slow rider, so 30,000km > 1,500 hours in the saddle)

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Here in Copenhagen, I write from my sickbed having been stricken by a nasty strain of manful given my by a man from Liverpool, leather saddles outnumber plastic ones about two-to-one, and Brooks are the majority. I daresay they sell more in Denmark, nb as original specification items, than they do in the UK. And they all seem to be completely neglected, left out in the rain, and the only time the get covered up is if they are soaking wet, not to stop them getting soaking wet.

Oddly my Danish-bought bike has a plastic saddle, cheapskate sort of a purchase, cheap but not particularly nasty, whereas my English bike wot-is-in-transit, my Brompton, has a Brooks.

Now I must return to couging my lungs up.

 

[Aravis]

Last summer you could get a black B17 for about £62 from Halfords. At the time I hadn't heard of Spa, and the Brooks became my 55th birthday present. Sometimes decisions are easier when you don't have all the facts!

As I've said elsewhere, it helped to transform my "just about adequate" aluminium framed tourer into something I can barely improve upon. If I can no longer justify the new bike I still secretly lust after, my head knows that is a good thing.

 

[Pale Rider]

I'm interested that people need to adjust the tensioning bolt on their Spas. My Brooks is 30,000km* old <insert "nearly broken in" joke here> and I've never had to touch that. I broke it in gently, just dubbin and my arse (there is all sorts of advice on the web about soaking it in oil or water or baking it), and have mostly covered the saddle if I've had to leave the bike out in the rain (no cover while riding it in the rain, but between me and the mudguard, it doesn't get very wet).

.... I've just checked the brooks site about tensioning, and it says it should be flat when viewed from the side. My saddle, unsurprisingly, has a gentle dip in the middle - if I place a book across the top of the saddle, there is about a 5mm gap in the middle. Brooks says this means it needs tensioning, but is there any reason to do that if I am comfortable as it is?

(I'm a slow rider, so 30,000km > 1,500 hours in the saddle)

Leaving it as is makes sense, happy in the knowledge you can always wind in a bit of tension if it sags a lot more.

I managed to get some mud on mine yesterday, so after a wipe, I gave it its first application of the stuff it came with.

The man in the shop said some people speed the process by using a hair dryer, but I couldn't be bothered with that.

As he also told me, leaving it overnight has done the same job.

The stuff has 'disappeared' and the finish looks as new again.

 

[EltonFrog]

A note on costs of Brooks.

Both of mine I bought on the Bay of E, one, the Swift, was brand new, an unwanted gift, about 60 queens cheaper than the shops and the B17 used for about 100 k apparently bloke didn't like it got it for 45 sovs, cheap as chips complete with boxes, dubbin, spanner and cloth. Bide your time keep cool and by one in the raffle.

 

[sidevalve]

just dubbin and my arse

Did you dubbin the saddle or the other thing
Must admit however I've never had to 'run in' a Brooks they just fit my bum from new.
Also curious about folk who seem happy to pay a grand or so for a bike + a wodge for 'the gear' but champ about maybe paying £60 - 70 on a saddle which will last for an entire lifetime.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

I wondered about Brooks v Spa.

Comparing like models, a B17 is best part of eighty quid, against £35 for a Nidd.

Comments on here suggest the B17 may be the better product.

Quite possibly, the more expensive item is often the best.

I'd like to do a back(side) to back comparison, but won't for two reasons.

I'm not paying £80 for another saddle, and even if I did, it would take me years to do the mileage needed to assess both.

For what it''s worth, I have both and did do a comparison in my review thread for the Nidd which is here: https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/spa-nidd-saddle.145150/

It's probably about time I updated that.

Edit: Update done for anyone interested.