mating a brooks B17 to my bike

Roger Zoul said:

Hi -

I just received a B17 Companion Special saddle. My bike is this one:

http://www.specialized.com/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=5863&JServSessionIdroot=tckrhpwly3.j27006

The problem I have is that the rails on the saddle don't match the clamp
mechanism on my bike. The rails appear to be spaced too closely and hence
won't align with the groves in the clamp. The clamp has two bolts, one fore
and other aft.

Sheldon sells something called a "Seat Sandwich" which might be what you
need.

Zog The Undeniable wrote:
|| Roger Zoul wrote:
||
||| Hi -
|||
||| I just received a B17 Companion Special saddle. My bike is this
||| one:
|||
|||
http://www.specialized.com/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=5863&JServSessionIdroot=tckrhpwly3.j27006
|||
||| The problem I have is that the rails on the saddle don't match the
||| clamp
||| mechanism on my bike. The rails appear to be spaced too closely
||| and hence
||| won't align with the groves in the clamp. The clamp has two bolts,
||| one fore
||| and other aft.
||
|| Sheldon sells something called a "Seat Sandwich" which might be what
|| you
|| need.

Thanks. I'm on it!

Roger Zoul said:

I just received a B17 Companion Special saddle.

Quoted message said:

The problem I have is that the rails on the saddle don't match the
clamp mechanism on my bike. The rails appear to be spaced too
closely and hence won't align with the groves in the clamp.

That's not uncommon with Brooks saddles, and the rails are also of slightly
smaller diameter than many modern saddles. It may be deliberate, rather
than a manufacturing problem: I know that Campagnolo used to make a special
Brooks seatpost at one point.

I've always just eased the rails apart until they're the right width to fit
the post, and haven't had any further problems.

Zog the Undeniable said:

Sheldon sells something called a "Seat Sandwich" which might
be what you need.

That's an adapter to allow a 4-rail Brooks to be fitted to a standard
post - not what's needed here.

James Thomson

Zog The Undeniable <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<410365bd.0@entanet>...

Quoted message said:

Roger Zoul said:

Hi -

I just received a B17 Companion Special saddle. My bike is this one:

http://www.specialized.com/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=5863&JServSessionIdroot=tckrhpwly3.j27006

The problem I have is that the rails on the saddle don't match the clamp
mechanism on my bike. The rails appear to be spaced too closely and hence
won't align with the groves in the clamp. The clamp has two bolts, one fore
and other aft.

Sheldon sells something called a "Seat Sandwich" which might be what you
need.

Wrong. From the glossary:

"Seat Sandwich ®
"An adaptor to allow a saddle with four frame rails to mount onto a
standard one-bolt "microadjust" type seat post.
"This consists of a grooved brass plate which fits between the upper
and lower rails, so that the vertical clamp bolt doesn't distort them
by squeezing them together. This accessory includes a longer than
normal bolt, and is primarily used for mounting wider Brooks leather
saddles, such as the B-72 and B-66."

I've seen other Brooks two-rail saddles where the rails are much
closer together than other saddles. I think the solution is to push
the rails apart to where they line up with the slots in the seatpost.

Jeff

"Roger Zoul" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi -

I just received a B17 Companion Special saddle. My bike is this one:

http://www.specialized.com/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=5863&JServSessionIdroot=tckrhpwly3.j27006

Quoted message said:

The problem I have is that the rails on the saddle don't match the clamp
mechanism on my bike. The rails appear to be spaced too closely and hence
won't align with the groves in the clamp. The clamp has two bolts, one

fore

Quoted message said:

and other aft.

This is quite common with Brooks saddles. Most of mine have the rails at a
slightly different distance to the seatpost clamp spacing. Just push the
rails apart as you tighten the clamp. Once they are partly in the groove, as
you tighten the clamp it will pull the rails to the correct position.

Nick

25 Jul 2004 18:43:45 +0200 'James Thomson said:

Roger Zoul said:

I just received a B17 Companion Special saddle.

Quoted message said:

The problem I have is that the rails on the saddle don't match the
clamp mechanism on my bike. The rails appear to be spaced too
closely and hence won't align with the groves in the clamp.

That's not uncommon with Brooks saddles, and the rails are also of slightly
smaller diameter than many modern saddles. It may be deliberate, rather
than a manufacturing problem: I know that Campagnolo used to make a special
Brooks seatpost at one point.

Brooks used to make a special line of saddles with close together
rails. This allowed the parallel section of rails to be longer,
allowing for greater fore/aft adjustment. This was the line for which
Campagnolo made a special seat post.

Normal Brooks saddles have normal seat rail spacing, although normal
manufacturing variation is likely. It's possible that the OP actually
found a B-17 with the special narrow rails. If so, he'll need to find
the special Campy seat post to go with it.

I think these parts date from before 1970 or so. I've never actually
seen either part, only catalog listings.

I suspect both parts are extremely rare now, but at least the seat
post might be somewhat easier to find. More likely he'll find someone
with a good seat post and a worn out saddle, who would like to buy
this saddle.

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney [email hidden]
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------

Jim Adney said:

Brooks used to make a special line of saddles with close
together rails. This allowed the parallel section of rails to
be longer, allowing for greater fore/aft adjustment. This was
the line for which Campagnolo made a special seat post.

Quoted message said:

I think these parts date from before 1970 or so. I've never
actually seen either part, only catalog listings.

Thanks for the clarification. I'd imagined that the Campag post was was
just intended to account for Brooks measuring in inches, rather than being
specific to a series of narrow-railed saddles. Like you, I've never had my
hands on either part.

James Thomson

Nick Payne wrote:
|| "Roger Zoul" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
|| news:[email hidden]...
||| Hi -
|||
||| I just received a B17 Companion Special saddle. My bike is this
||| one:
|||
|||
||
http://www.specialized.com/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=5863&JServSessionIdroot=tckrhpwly3.j27006
|||
||| The problem I have is that the rails on the saddle don't match the
||| clamp
||| mechanism on my bike. The rails appear to be spaced too closely
||| and hence
||| won't align with the groves in the clamp. The clamp has two bolts,
||| one
|| fore
||| and other aft.
|||
|| This is quite common with Brooks saddles. Most of mine have the
|| rails at a
|| slightly different distance to the seatpost clamp spacing. Just push
|| the
|| rails apart as you tighten the clamp. Once they are partly in the
|| groove, as
|| you tighten the clamp it will pull the rails to the correct position.

Thanks.. .it worked exactly as you describe!

James Thomson wrote:
|| "Roger Zoul" <[email hidden]> wrote:
||
||| I just received a B17 Companion Special saddle.
||
||| The problem I have is that the rails on the saddle don't match the
||| clamp mechanism on my bike. The rails appear to be spaced too
||| closely and hence won't align with the groves in the clamp.
||
|| That's not uncommon with Brooks saddles, and the rails are also of
|| slightly smaller diameter than many modern saddles. It may be
|| deliberate, rather than a manufacturing problem: I know that
|| Campagnolo used to make a special Brooks seatpost at one point.
||
|| I've always just eased the rails apart until they're the right width
|| to fit the post, and haven't had any further problems.

Yep. I got it on 🙂 Thanks.

26 Jul 2004 10:00:41 +0200 'James Thomson said:

Jim Adney said:

Brooks used to make a special line of saddles with close
together rails. This allowed the parallel section of rails to
be longer, allowing for greater fore/aft adjustment. This was
the line for which Campagnolo made a special seat post.

Quoted message said:

I think these parts date from before 1970 or so. I've never
actually seen either part, only catalog listings.

Thanks for the clarification. I'd imagined that the Campag post was was
just intended to account for Brooks measuring in inches, rather than being
specific to a series of narrow-railed saddles. Like you, I've never had my
hands on either part.

I find the special seat posts in the Campy catalog 17a, which appears
to be circa 1977, so this post was available later than I thought. The
standard seat posts for seat rails measuring 36mm (inside) are the
1044 and the "superlight" 1044/a. The narrow seat post for seat rails
measuring 20mm (inside) is the 1045 and the "superlight" 1045/a.

There does not appear to be a narrow rail version of the next
generation "Super Record" seat post.

The standard saddle has a parallel rail section 60mm long, while the
narrow rail version has a parallel rail section 120mm long.

Since the OP mentioned that he had found a B-17 Champion Special, I
strongly suspect that the "Special" indicates the narrow rail version.

The Campy catalog only mentions "narrow cradle saddles" so I wonder if
anyone other than Brooks ever made this variation.

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney [email hidden]
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------

"Jim Adney" <[email hidden]> wrote:

[snip]

Quoted message said:

Since the OP mentioned that he had found a B-17 Champion
Special, I strongly suspect that the "Special" indicates the
narrow rail version.

A B-17 Champion Special is just a fancy B-17 with medium-sized copper
rivets.

I've found a picture of the narrow-railed Brooks at:

http://www.classicrendezvous.com/Market_highs/brooks_campy_model.htm

It's stamped "Campagnolo Model", suggesting that the narrow rail separation
was a Campag spec, rather than a Brooks one. The pictured saddle sold for
US$920 on eBay.

James Thomson

Roger Zoul said:

Nick Payne wrote:
|| "Roger Zoul" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
|| news:[email hidden]...
||| Hi -
|||
||| I just received a B17 Companion Special saddle. My bike is this
||| one:
|||
|||
||
http://www.specialized.com/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=5863&JServSessionIdroot=tckrhpwly3.j27006
|||
||| The problem I have is that the rails on the saddle don't match the
||| clamp
||| mechanism on my bike. The rails appear to be spaced too closely
||| and hence
||| won't align with the groves in the clamp. The clamp has two bolts,
||| one
|| fore
||| and other aft.
|||
|| This is quite common with Brooks saddles. Most of mine have the
|| rails at a
|| slightly different distance to the seatpost clamp spacing. Just push
|| the
|| rails apart as you tighten the clamp. Once they are partly in the
|| groove, as
|| you tighten the clamp it will pull the rails to the correct position.

Thanks.. .it worked exactly as you describe!

Let us know how you find it Roger. I'm very happy with mine.

Pete

27 Jul 2004 08:16:44 +0200 'James Thomson said:

I've found a picture of the narrow-railed Brooks at:

http://www.classicrendezvous.com/Market_highs/brooks_campy_model.htm

It's stamped "Campagnolo Model", suggesting that the narrow rail separation
was a Campag spec, rather than a Brooks one. The pictured saddle sold for
US$920 on eBay.

Okay, Campagnolo model sounds right. WOW, I guess I won't be looking
for one of those, but frankly, I wonder why anyone would. I've never
been unhappy with where the middle of the standard adjustment put me.

Plus, the narrower cradle would make the saddle more prone to
twisting.

-
-----------------------------------------------
Jim Adney [email hidden]
Madison, WI 53711 USA
-----------------------------------------------

Ningi wrote:
|| Roger Zoul wrote:
||
||| Nick Payne wrote:
||||| "Roger Zoul" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
||||| news:[email hidden]...
|||||| Hi -
||||||
|||||| I just received a B17 Companion Special saddle. My bike is this
|||||| one:
||||||
||||||
|||||
|||
http://www.specialized.com/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=5863&JServSessionIdroot=tckrhpwly3.j27006
||||||
|||||| The problem I have is that the rails on the saddle don't match
|||||| the
|||||| clamp
|||||| mechanism on my bike. The rails appear to be spaced too closely
|||||| and hence
|||||| won't align with the groves in the clamp. The clamp has two
|||||| bolts,
|||||| one
||||| fore
|||||| and other aft.
||||||
||||| This is quite common with Brooks saddles. Most of mine have the
||||| rails at a
||||| slightly different distance to the seatpost clamp spacing. Just
||||| push
||||| the
||||| rails apart as you tighten the clamp. Once they are partly in the
||||| groove, as
||||| you tighten the clamp it will pull the rails to the correct
||||| position.
|||
||| Thanks.. .it worked exactly as you describe!
|||
|||
||
|| Let us know how you find it Roger. I'm very happy with mine.

Will do, Pete. I had a 30 minute spin yesterday. No problems, but not
enough to decide anything.