Brooks Saddles

You’ll end up with a saddle that’s lighter than anticipated.
It’s supposedly designed for women, but from what I recall the only difference is that the nose is shorter than a standard B17, so maybe a little less adjustment available.

Cool. I now have to decide which one gets a new saddle.

Can any Cambium (15&17) users recommend another make/model of saddle that you find as comfy as your Brooks?

Maybe you have a Cambium on one bike and something else on another and you think they feel pretty similar or maybe you have gone from another brand that you were happy with to using Cambiums?

I ask because I’m very comfy on the Cambiums I have but I don’t use the luggage loops (wouldn’t trust the newer ones) and I think they are pretty abrasive and I go through shorts pretty quickly.

I switch a lot between my c15 and a Fabric Scoop Shallow. I find the shape similar, has padding so makes commuting minus bibs more comfy

Awesome. Have picked up a cheap Scoop from eBay so will try that out.

Might be a good shout on my gravel fixed as I have one of the older c15s on it and it’s squeaking like a squashed Guinea pig at the moment!

^ Scoop was...meh. It was alright but not as comfy as the Cambium.

Picked up a lightly used Spa Nidd to try on my fixed road bike and quite like it and I decided to keep my All Weather Cambiums and just shift the older and possibly more abrasive ones on.

Since the Nidd has 'proper' bag loops I decided I'd get a Carradice Classic rack to replace the modded SQR set up I was using.

My C17 All Weather was already running a metal back piece in place of the black plastic one as (as reported earlier in this thread) I'd broken the bag loops using a Classic rack. I gave Brooks a shout to see if I could buy a metal back plate for the C15 All Weather I have and they sent me one FOC again. Can't argue with that.

Next question,

I have a narrower Brooks leather saddle, I think it's probably a Swallow as I can see that at one point the leather top has had a loop underneath but that is now missing.

Its proper old, it was on my grandad's 1950's Flying Scot so I'd love to make use of it but it's an absolute gooch hatchet!

It doesn't look horrendously worn or misshapen so I don't understand why it feels like it was designed by an evil sadist.

Any advice? Is it a case of just finding a comfy angle for it? Should I try soften the leather up a bit?

They’re torture devices, plain and simple.
Possibly designed for an aggressive racing position, but I wouldn’t know about that.

I would venture that softening it with a tiny neatsfoot oil treatment could help a tiny bit, but fear it will always remain a ‘gooch-hatchet’ (stunning phrase btw!)

If you want a replacement Swallow plate I think I may have one somewhere. Though I imagine if one was there it would have taken the leather tabs, to which it was rivetted, with it.

Yeah the tabs are gone.

It’s a shame that it’s unlikely I’ll get comfy on it as it is quite a good looking saddle. Granddad must have done some miles on it, guess they made em different back then. Gooches that is. And saddles. To suit the weird, concrete gooches.

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Anyone replaced the backplate of a C17? I snapped one of the loops on the nylon backplate and trying to replace with a metal one, however the rivets just spin when I try and undo them.

I think I managed to get a rather stubborn one undone by placing it on some inner tube on my workbench and pressing down really hard as I turned the torx key.

Have you got a replacement back piece?

As someone else said up thread, the Spa cycles saddles seem to be a direct replacement for Brooks. I've got a Nidd which now has been used for a year of purely off road riding and it seems fine. It's been very comfortable and at less than half the price of the equivalent Brooks, hard to fault.

Hmm, tried this. Will maybe try and get some WD40 in the screw before I attempt it again. I've got a metal backplate to put on, just can't get the damn thing undone!

Interesting that they don't say where they're made- I'd imagine the labour prices in the far East are very different to the West Midlands

I’ve currently got a very lightly used second hand Nidd, a rather more used but still very good condition b17 narrow and a very second hand standard b17.

The Nidd is by far the hardest of the saddles. I’d say the leather is probably 1.5-2x the thickness of that on the Brooks’.

Comfort wise though…not much between them.

Spa Cycles saddles are made by Gyes in Taiwan. Gyes make most of the private label leather saddles with detail differences between brands.

I've been looking to get a B17 but unsure whether to go with the standard or narrow. My sit bones are at 110mm and I ride a 130mm saddle atm which is comfy. Will I suffer on a Narrow or should I just go with the standard and be done with it? I'm just worried the standard will be too wide and cause my cheeks to numb, but then again I guess overtime it will mold to my butt.

Can't advise on fit, too personal, etc. But I'm still going to say (though this is irrelevant and unsolicited info for you) that I've always found the narrow better looking.

Buddy’s B17 busted the adjuster bolt - youtube to the rescue!
I also added the laces as it was pretty swaybacked before. The bolt I used is possibly a placeholder as it’s only galvanized, I think my only other easy option is stainless but the store I went to didn’t have it.
Brooks is pretty ignorant to not only have a unique thread (neither Metric nor Imperial) but also designed the bolt to make it almost impossible to fit without special tools, so I’ve read. Thankfully I didn’t have to find that out personally.

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