Hi! Has anybody tried the Brooks leather saddle? Even though I’ve had a couple of bike fits over the past few years, I’ve never found a comfortable saddle for long rides. Is the ‘Shapes Over Time’ claim true?
Thanks!
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I love mine. Very comfortable, but can take a while to break in and is a bit heavy
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I have Brooks B17’s and it has conformed to me over several bikepacking trips and a lot of gravel rides. I also have Berthoud on my road bike and it’s very comfortable, I have a cutout Berthoud on my adventure bike and I’m just breaking it in over a year and I still am not sure if I like it as much as the solid saddles
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I’ve had a number of Brooks saddles over the years. They were fine, but I wouldn’t say they are more comfortable than a modern saddle.
Downsides: Weight, and not perfect for wet weather.
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A couple questions you should answer first:
What is the length of your beard?
How do you feel about disc brakes and electronic shifting?
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The newer (last 10 years) Brooks don’t last as long as the older ones did. The leather is thinner or the tanning is different. Riding them while wet will kill them pretty quick, they will develop the ‘taint ridge.’
Berthoud uses thicker leather (25% thicker by my calipers), but will suffer in wet weather similarly.
I have used both brands and used saddle covers in wet weather and all my bikes have full fenders and used leather treatment according to mfg recommendations. I still ended up killing them within a few years because they got wet in summer downpours and I wasn’t able to wait for them to dry before riding them.
Ultimately, the price and maintenance and care required of leather led me to plastic/foam saddles.
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Yeah, Brooks is one option. I also ride an Ideale which uses much thicker leather, definitely requires more breaking in (of either saddle or arse) but I find it comfortable. I also have two bikes with the Selle Anatomica X which has thinner leather, acts as more of a sling, and is the most comfortable of the lot. Comfort being subjective of course, but a great aspect of leather saddles is the shiny smooth ability to micro- move across the surface. In conclusion, Brooks is fine, but for the leather curious, the Selle Anatomica is the way to go. Also rebuildable and great after sales service, even here in Oz.
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Once the Cambium models became available I switched. There’s no worries about water, and the material moves with you much better. After a few rides the cover material gets just as frictionless as leather, and so you have the same advantages there too.
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I rode on Brooks for years and hated them for all that time. Even after they were ”broken in” I found them quite uncomfortable: saddles are a very personal thing.
And yes, I’ve worn a beard for the last 40 years and all my bikes have cable actuated shifting.
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Well, well well….that’s possibly the most personal choice question you may ask in cycling and unrelated to Brooks. For what it’s worth the Brooks B17 is one of the highest regarded leather saddles out there and is mainly unchanged for now centuries. Their saddles are also still handmade in the UK if that matters to you or Italy for the Cambium versions. What I love my (Cambium) Brooks for the most is that I can very comfortably ride it without bibs. I only wear lycra or even cycling attire on my road bike and generally feel that Brooks supports chami less riding the most of the brands I tried. If you like a more scientific approach to saddle fit, I’d highly recommend checking out Ergon. They have a massive choice of shapes, widths and support . What bike is it that you are riding and what’s your position like on that bike? The leather Brooks do not really work well with anything too sporty and too much saddle to bar drop. They like a more upright position as a starting point.
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I rode Brooks-clone saddles from Gyes for a few years and my experience was that the reshaping potential was far less dramatic than I’d been led to expect. If the shape of the saddle is comfortable for you out of the box then it’s going to get just a tiny bit better over time, but you’re not going to see a wholesale change in shape or width unless the leather starts falling apart or is undertensioned. So for comfort I don’t see leather saddles as being any better or worse than synthetics. They do weigh more and require maintenance, so I’d only recommend one if you need it to match the aesthetics of a classic bike.
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My beard is full, so that qualifies my response earlier
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I would disagree with saddle to bar drop, mine is pretty low for an “old guy” and the B17, is comfortable
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My theory is that the reason the Brooks B-17 has been a very popular saddle over the years is the width. Most people default to saddles that are too narrow for them and only find this out after the back to back very long days which are standard fare in Bikepacking. There are a heap of other wider saddles available now that dont require you to wear a saddle cover in the rain, and weigh a fraction of the weight. But having said that, if I am riding for + 3 days in a bikepacking event I will always use my B-17 Brooks. It just feels amazing to me. I never had any break-in period associated with mine, but that’s just my experience. I have been doing bikepacking events since 2010, but have never really been a “touring cyclist” as such. I also use my B-17 with aero bars. Yes I have a beard, and I wear socks with my sandals.
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My gravgrav came with the fruity black carbon cambium. I swear it was the sexiest saddle Ive ever seen, but unfortunately it was way too narrow, and disappointingly heavy for what it was. The first gen cambiums had a habit of the nose falling off. I assume that’s all been sorted now.
Two fit considerations for you:
Seat angle/seatpost layback: Brooks saddles were designed when bikes had much slacker seat angles. If you put one on a modern bike with an inline post, you might find it throws you much further forward than you might like to be. If you have a bike with a steeper seat angle or inline post, you probably won’t like a Brooks.
Width: they don’t fit as wide as they look. If you have wide sit bones (circa 120mm +), you’ll struggle with any of the racier shapes. Subtract about 20mm from the total width to get the “real” width between the rivets. If you have wide sit bones, you’ll be riding on the metal frame under the back of the saddle (it’s not fun). If they made a Swift that was 20mm wider at the back, I would own one already. I would need to ride a B17 touring/auduax saddle to fit my sit bone width.
Also, the rivets can rough up your shorts a bit. I also found the Cambium saddles to be quite abrasive - I used to commute on a polycotton Cambium, in polycotton shorts/trousers, and they just chafed eachother to death. Destroyed an expensive saddle, and some rather pricey Fjallraven gear in quite a short period of time.
Rivet saddles are worth a look - their Diablo road saddle is interesting. It’s a nice modern take on a leather saddle.
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