I really love the comfort of it, but the last two years it seems to be eating my bib shorts when I’m on it. Either the fabric gets chafed (latest generation Le Col bibshorts), or the stitched come loose (older models Le Col bibshorts).
I already changed my seat angle to avoid sliding too much back en forth on the saddle, but this doesn’t help a lot.
Last weekend I rode my friend’s bike (with a Fizi:k saddle on it), and I was surprised how slippery that saddle felt under my bibs, almost like there was soap on it. Which proves the Brooks C15 provides a lot of grip, but which also seems to be the reason that my expensive bibs don’t last long.
Any suggestions for a good saddle with a similar form?
I found the same thing commuting on a C17 cambium – destroyed the backside of three quite expensive pairs of Fjallraven shorts and trousers before I realised it was the saddle causing the problem. Switched to a Prologo and the problem mysteriously stopped.
Is your C15 the one with the cutout, or the standard one? They both sag quite a lot in the middle compared to conventional saddles, but the cutout one remarkably so – you’ll probably find that another conventional saddle with the same shape won’t feel the same once you’re sitting on it. A similarly shaped saddle with a hard carcass will put much more pressure on your gooch than the Brooks, which will sag down underneath your weight.
It’s probably worth going somewhere you can try a few saddles and maybe take a demo with you, as anything else is going to feel very different from what you’re used to. Also to note, if you’re slipping around a lot on the saddle and relying on saddle friction to keep you in place, there might be something else going on with your fit that needs addressing.
The seat angle I normally ran is one I got advised after a bike fit. When I first started noting the abnormal wear on my bibs, I paid attention to what exactly happened when pedalling and I discovered that every couple of minutes I had to push myself backwards on the saddle because I had shifted tot the tip of the saddle when pedalling. So I put the saddle a little more level. I think I move less around now, but it still happens.
P.S. I was already thinking about a custom 3D printed saddle as a replacement, but this review on Escape Collective seems to show that this will likely just cause the exact same problem:
I suspect you may be able to sand it down - a google search confirms this but with mixed results. Someone else shellac’d theirs too.
Re: similarly shaped saddles, I have both the Cambium and the Prologo Scratch in my saddle library. The Scratch series with the cutout has a similar profile. Scratch M5 Space | Prologo
I would second the Scratch as a good suggestion – I got on with that quite well, and Prologo have a fairly generous trial and return period, so no loss if you don’t like it.
That is a good remark. When I installed the saddle, I measured the distance from the center of my bottom bracket to the top of the saddle according to the instructions of the bike fitter. But I didn’t pay attention to the fact that a Brooks Cambium indeed sags when you sit on it.
I have raised the saddle 0.5 cm to compensate this, and I think I am indeed moving around on the saddle less now. So hopefully this will be less destructive for my bibs.