rosborn said:
Okay. I have a friend who just switched to a Brooks saddle. He is absolutely raving about this saddle. Says it is the best thing since sliced bread and has changed his entire riding experience.
I have an '05 Specialized Tarma Comp and feel the saddle (a Body Geometry Alias) is pretty good. Oh, it could be more comfortable but it isn't bad compared to the '04 Giant OCR3 seat that I had been riding on, prior to purchasing my Tarmac.
My question is this: anyone on the forum have any experience with Brooks saddles? If so, what are your thoughts when compared with the current saddles that are offered on the standard popular models? Would it be worth trying a Brooks saddle as opposed to the saddles that came on my Tarmac? Just trying to get some productive feedback here.
I'm currently using an older
BROOKS B15 (standard) on one of my bikes. The B15 is a model that preceded the currently available
B17.
Some people love LEATHER saddles, and some HATE them. The so-called
cognoscenti will tell you they are more comfortable because they can mold to your butt (amongst other things). That may be true, but the real reason that I think they can be more comfortable is because most LEATHER saddles are generally WIDER ...
FWIW. I eventually put a then-NOS
Wrights W3S on my wife's bike. The leather on a Wrights is typically NOT as thick as the leather on a BROOKS ... that is both good and bad ... it means that the platform is not quite as rigid, and ANY break-in time is therefore much shorter.
I do find LEATHER saddles to be comfortable. I generally just wear rugby shorts, BTW.
AND, I will note that when I was testing several so-called women's saddles before fitting them on my wife's bike, I found the wide saddles as comfortable as the San Marco Concor (regular & lite) saddle(s) that I had been using for over 20 years.
There is probably NO disadvantage to a wider saddle for ANYONE with regard to comfort; BUT, the typical LEATHER saddle weighs in at a porky 550 grams ... some weigh more, some weigh less.
I have a couple of the so-called "narrow" saddles, and I find them to be comfortable, too. My recollection is that the narrow is about the width of a Selle Italia ProLink.
The width of a
BROOKS PROFESSIONAL is between that of their so-called "standard" saddle and their so-called "narrow" saddle.
BTW. Pre-softened saddles are NOT a good idea, IMO. Also, I use SnoSeal instead of Proofide because it is what I had available to treat the leather AFTER removing the "gloss" with steel wool.
Get your buddy to let you try his bike for a few miles if the frames you ride are close to the same size OR convince him to let you borrow his saddle (and seatpost if they are the same size as your bike uses) for a short ride-around-the-block. You'll probably know in a couple of miles if a LEATHER saddle is NOT for you --
the rails should be parallel to the ground, BTW. Almost any other position invites discomfort (no offense to Rivendell & Co.), IMO.
