I ordered a Brooks...

Bill Henry said:

...from Nashbar today. I'm hoping it's going to be worth the $. Hard
for me to tell, since I haven't ridden it.

Honestly, I'm getting a little buyer's remorse. I know they're good,
but are they really worth the money? I'd be interested in hearing from
anyone who owns a Brooks.

This is for my old-school Takara road bike, which now has its own web
page dedicated to it.

We gave 7 Brooks, and 5 of them are mounted on bikes at the moments (we
have a couple of extras as my wife decided she liked the shorter B17S
over the B17). We love them. I used to have another favorite saddle,
which worked well overall but I would get a severe case of sore
sit-bones on any ride over 50 miles or so. Now the 100 mile+ rides are
no problem. BTW, we have 3 models: standard B17, B17S, and B17
Champion; had a Team Pro for a while but it was a bit too narrow so
sold it and got a Standard instead.

- rick

Bill Henry said:

Honestly, I'm getting a little buyer's remorse. I know they're good,
but are they really worth the money?

It's usually the cheap stuff that turns out not to be worth the money.

Quoted message said:

This is for my old-school Takara road bike, which now has its own web
page dedicated to it.

I took a look at the web pages; the derailer is super clean! What'd you
use to clean it, and how'd you go about it. I've never cleaned mine...
I rarely clean my bikes... they appear not to need it, but it would make
them look much better.

Rich

"Bill Henry" wrote ...

Quoted message said:

...from Nashbar today. I'm hoping it's going to be worth the $. Hard for
me to tell, since I haven't ridden it.

Honestly, I'm getting a little buyer's remorse. I know they're good, but
are they really worth the money? I'd be interested in hearing from anyone
who owns a Brooks.

This is for my old-school Takara road bike, which now has its own web page
dedicated to it.

Oh yeah, and new tires are on the way, too.

I've got a B.17 on my mountain bike/winter commute bike, and a Brooks Colt
on my tourer. Excellent saddles, very comfy, very stylish.
--
mark

Bill Henry said:

Takara Road Bike Fix-Up
http://home.comcast.net/~billhenry2/takara/takara.html

Nice long chainstays, but where's the rear brake?

Art Harris

Bill Henry wrote:
:: ...from Nashbar today. I'm hoping it's going to be worth the $.
:: Hard for me to tell, since I haven't ridden it.
::
:: Honestly, I'm getting a little buyer's remorse. I know they're good,
:: but are they really worth the money? I'd be interested in hearing
:: from anyone who owns a Brooks.
::

I have a B17 something or other, with titanium rails...don't know why they
sent me that, as I didn't order it. I would have sent it back, but my butt
really needed it.

Anyhow, I like mine. Or, I should say, my butt likes it. The first few
rides it felt hard, but once you let your butt warm the saddle up a bit, the
leather sort of gives to the shape of your rump. After a while, you'll see
the dimples in there, after it has adjusted to your personal dimensions a
bit. I can do long rides without all of that padding my first saddle had
causing me "issues."

They are not for everyone, so expect a YMMV kind of thing here. Good luck.

Rich said:

Bill Henry said:

Honestly, I'm getting a little buyer's remorse. I know they're good,
but are they really worth the money?

It's usually the cheap stuff that turns out not to be worth the money.

Quoted message said:

This is for my old-school Takara road bike, which now has its own web
page dedicated to it.

I took a look at the web pages; the derailer is super clean! What'd you
use to clean it, and how'd you go about it. I've never cleaned mine...
I rarely clean my bikes... they appear not to need it, but it would make
them look much better.

Clean-up was pretty simple. I took it off the bike and used a liberal
amount of dish-soap. I scrubbed it with a nylon-bristle brush that I
used to use for the dishes. After that I dried it off, and used WD-40,
which is actually a fantastic lubricant and polish. It shined right up.
The derailleur looks practically brand new, and it's at least 20
years old. I did disassemble the jockey wheels and cleaned those up,
too, which made a huge difference.

I was "lucky" somewhat, in that all the problems with the bike seemed to
be due rather to neglect than to outright abuse. Sometimes neglect is
worse, but in this case it just required clean-up, re-lubing, and
re-installation for most of the parts. Nothing too fancy.

Art Harris said:

Bill Henry said:

Takara Road Bike Fix-Up
http://home.comcast.net/~billhenry2/takara/takara.html

Nice long chainstays, but where's the rear brake?

I took it off, temporarily. I haven't missed it yet, since all of the
riding I've been doing is at reasonable speeds and on very flat terrain.
However, I expect that once it gets a little wetter, I'll put it back
on.

This was actually kind of an accident. I was going to have two brakes
on the bike, but the new brake cable frayed really badly when I used the
wrong cable cutters for it. The old brake cable was just as bad and I
was running low on cable housing. Also, I need new pads on the rear
brake, so I consolidated my resources and just fixed up the front brake
really well with new everything. Works well, at least so far.

-Bill H.

You'll love it--I have been riding on my B17 Standard for about a year.
It's like nothing else. Use some of the grease on it occasionally
(Proofide) and it makes it better. I haven't even touched the
adjustment nut tho I bought the wrench--peobably won't. I got mine
from the guy in New Orleans--wallbike.com--who I understand is now back
in business after the flood. Good news--they are really nice people to
deal with. JH

I have four bikes. I have Brooks B17s on my Schwinn Peloton and Gunnar
Sport, mainly because they look good on those particular bikes. They are
very comfortable saddles, and I can wholeheartedly endorse them. That being
said, I have two other bikes--one has the stock anatomical Velo, and one has
a standard Performance saddle. Both are very comfortable saddles, and I can
wholeheartedly endorse them. I have never found a saddle uncomfortable.
Until recently, I just rode the stock saddle on whatever bike I had. I put
thousands of miles on a Raleigh-branded saddle in the 80s, and before that I
rode a hard BMX plastic saddle. :-)

Gooserider said:

I have four bikes. I have Brooks B17s on my Schwinn Peloton and Gunnar
Sport, mainly because they look good on those particular bikes. They are
very comfortable saddles, and I can wholeheartedly endorse them. That being
said, I have two other bikes--one has the stock anatomical Velo, and one has
a standard Performance saddle. Both are very comfortable saddles, and I can
wholeheartedly endorse them. I have never found a saddle uncomfortable.

You're lucky. The saddle on my bike is old and uncomfortable. And
though it's a secondary consideration - it's also very ugly.

Bill Henry said:

...from Nashbar today. I'm hoping it's going to be worth the $. Hard
for me to tell, since I haven't ridden it.

Honestly, I'm getting a little buyer's remorse. I know they're good,
but are they really worth the money? I'd be interested in hearing from
anyone who owns a Brooks.

I have three of them (B17, B17 Champion and Champion Flyer w/springs).
I love them all!

I've found they're quite comfortable right out of the box, although
you may slide around on them for a while until they soften a bit.
Then they just get more and more comfy over the years.

I finally reached the point on my oldest Brooks, where the saddle
had softened to the point I was riding in too deep of a pocket in
the leather. I *carefully* adjusted the tension using the saddle
nose to get it back to happiness.

The word is to be extremely careful about using the adjuster, but
I'm now having some doubt as to just how sensitive adjustment is. It's
quite a long adjustment range and I wouldn't think Brooks would put
such a long one in if it was largely meant to be ignored. I tightened
up on it about 1/4 inch and it's been perfect again over the last
couple years.

As someone is bound to say, seats are very personal. I generally hear
nothing but great stuff about Brooks saddles, and my experience with
three different types of them over almost 10 years is in agreement.

But there are some who haven't had good luck with the Brooks. Hope
your bottom isn't one of them!

SMH

Rich said:

Bill Henry said:

Honestly, I'm getting a little buyer's remorse. I know they're good,
but are they really worth the money?

It's usually the cheap stuff that turns out not to be worth the money.

Interestingly enough, the other super comfortable saddle I ride
along with the three Brooks, is an el cheapo Mongoose saddle
that came stock on a $230 Mongoose Threshold MTB. Actually used on
one of my road bikes for a while until converting to a Brooks.

On my $1000 Trek 2000, the Selle San Marco saddle that came with
it has been unusable. I don't know, but I assume it's a bit pricier
of a saddle given the bike that came with it.

I've really tried to make use of it, but it consistently fails.
It's in the box o' bike parts awaiting another trial on another bike
some day, but I expect it to fail again then too.

SMH

Bill Henry said:

...from Nashbar today. I'm hoping it's going to be worth the $. Hard
for me to tell, since I haven't ridden it.

Honestly, I'm getting a little buyer's remorse. I know they're good,
but are they really worth the money? I'd be interested in hearing from
anyone who owns a Brooks.

Nothing is perfect. I have a Brooks on my cheap $20 made-in-China "mountain
bike" and the saddle is just GREAT. I bought it just a bit used on e-bay
possibly from someone who was unhappy with it. I also have 2 more Brooks
B-17 saddles sitting in a box for another touring bicycle that is on it's
way from the frame builder.

I am perfectly happy with the Brooks. The plastic "modern" saddles just are
not there for me.

If you are unhappy with your brooks, PLEASE let me know. At the right price
I'll buy it off you. I have no remorse buying a Brooks...

Ken
Winnipeg, Canada

Stephen Harding said:

As someone is bound to say, seats are very personal. I generally hear
nothing but great stuff about Brooks saddles, and my experience with
three different types of them over almost 10 years is in agreement.

But there are some who haven't had good luck with the Brooks. Hope
your bottom isn't one of them!

I'm one of those with a butt for which a Brooks saddle didn't work
out. Saddles are very personal. I also don't think there is a
way to determine how much you are going to dislike a saddle without
buying one and putting enough miles on it for your rear end to
express an opinion, so buying a new model saddle is an exercise
involving an inherent risk that you've wasted some money. I
don't see any way around this.

I now have Terry Fly saddles on all my bicycles. There's nothing
special about this particular saddle other than it is the first
one I came across when looking for a new saddle that I found I could
sit comfortably on for long periods, and I haven't felt like funding
any experimentation with other models since I found this one.

Dennis Ferguson

I swear by Brooks. I have a B17 on my tourer, and a Champion Flyer on my
MTB. But seats are about as individual an item as you can get on a
bicycle.

As for whether it is a good deal, that depends on how well it fits you
as well as your riding style. Because the saddle has to adapt to the
rider inasmuch as the other way around, ride it for at least 500 miles
before giving it your "final answer".

Be sure to use the care methods recommended by Brooks. After ruining a
few saddles, I found their way to be best.

- -

"May you have the winds at your back,
And a really low gear for the hills!"

Chris Zacho ~ "Your Friendly Neighborhood Wheelman"

Chris'Z Corner
http://www.geocities.com/czcorner

"Bill Henry" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

Gooserider said:

I have four bikes. I have Brooks B17s on my Schwinn Peloton and Gunnar
Sport, mainly because they look good on those particular bikes. They are
very comfortable saddles, and I can wholeheartedly endorse them. That
being said, I have two other bikes--one has the stock anatomical Velo,
and one has a standard Performance saddle. Both are very comfortable
saddles, and I can wholeheartedly endorse them. I have never found a
saddle uncomfortable.

You're lucky. The saddle on my bike is old and uncomfortable. And though
it's a secondary consideration - it's also very ugly.

I also have a Specialized Body Geometry Pro Ti(whew!) that I got off eBay
because I read good reviews. I paid more for it than the Brooks, and it's a
very comfortable saddle. No more comfortable than the others I have, though.
I always ride in bike shorts, either Performance road shorts, or Primal Wear
MTB baggies. Maybe that's why I have no saddle issues.