Tightening Brooks Saddles

Do you need a special tool to tension Brooks saddles? It looks like a normal bolt at the front but a quick browse around the web and people are chatting about a special brooks tool. Anyone know the story? Ta.

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The tool was included in the bag with the polo tourney saddles.

preferably, yes, the nut can be quite tricky to get at without pulling the leather out of the way too much. be wary though, tightening your brooks before it actually needs it can unnecessarily stretch the leather, so I rememeber reading from sheldon.

I have a swift and allen key works fine.

Saddle's stretched to fuck with this 'summer' we've been having tho :(

Brooks spanner easier as it has 12 corners, if you catch my drift.

I can adjust my "B17 champion special" with a standard offset open spanner (14mm).

One of these:

Each try moves the nut about 1/8th, then I turn spanner round and turn another 1/8th from the other side of my toptube. Keep going until you've turned enough.

I've only tightened mine about 1 full turn in 9 months and it's as tight as a drum.

I've got a B17 Narrow and it's starting to squeak a bit when going over bumps/uneven roads. Anyone know if tightening will stop this or is it something else? Spent an age getting the drive chain nice and quiet but the Brooks is letting the side down!

how is it held to your seatpost? microadjust or clip assembly? lightly greasing any metal on metal contact areas might be easier than playing with the leather tension.

I won't lie to you....I don't know. I've had a quick look and I think it's the rails creaking where it's attached to the seatpost. I'll give your suggestion a go and give those areas a lil greasing. While we're on the greasing subject though....do you have any knowledge of chaintugs? I put some on my frame a coupla weeks ago but they're getting quite tough to turn. Should I have greased them before installing?

AFAIK chain tugs are there to keep your axle from sliding backwards. They are not for winching your wheel forward and chain back to tension.

You should adjust the position of the wheel so the chain has the desired tension and then tighten the chaintug. This is also why you only need one tug.

true. set your wheel as outlined by jM before tightening down the chain tug screws.

it never hurts to give metal on metal threads a grease, you can tighten them more and they won't seize.

Cheers stevo and jM. I'll grease them too then. Just to clarify - I usually position the wheel manually first and then use the chaintugs to tweak the tension at the end. At certain points in the rotation of the cranks the chain is tighter than others so I use them to find that balance between getting as little slack as possible and cog grindage. I guess that's to do with the chainring not being an exact circle. Anyhoo....apologies to J-D-S-H for hijacking yo thread. As you were peeps.

I just use a pair of pliers.

Also, I found that the creaking happens when the saddle leather is too loose or too tight. A bit of trial and error. Hope this helps

Sorry to revive this, but having some brooks issues...

I have a brooks swift, bought second hand, which seems to have a tendendcy to sag... I've tightened it once or twice which corrects it temporarily, then it stretches again. I'm conscious of the risks of overtightening and deforming the leather, and I like the saddle, but it gets less comfy when it sags (it's pretty nice to sit on when in good condition). Anyone have any experience with this? Should I just tighten it back to level (which seems to be quite a lot of tightening) and try harder not to get it wet?

http://i867.photobucket.com/albums/ab238/andyfallsoff/Bike%20stuff%20for%20sale/P1000799.jpg

Have you proofed it? If not, it's going to stretch if you ride it wet, and the more you tighten it, the more it will stretch, and the thinner it gets, and the more it stretches....and so on.

pm skully

I have proofed it a couple of times, but I'm not sure if I've done enough? I read that the proofride could lead it to stretch more, as it softens the leather

@murtle - will do

You don't want to stew it in the stuff, but it needs not to get soaked through in the wet. Might be time to use a cover if it's raining.

have you ridden it whilst its wet?

that is the killer for them as they stretch lots under your weight when soaked

this is why people tend to have a thick layer of the proofhide underneath to stop spray getting to the saddle, the top tends to be covered by the rider (its also why people cover them when left outside to stop ingress of water from the top)

TBH I didn't think it had been getting soaked through - it hasn't been out in the rain that much, and the leather seems pretty water resistant (so I thought it was probably treated enough).

Will give it another proofing today, but just not sure if it needs to be tightened right up to horizontal first/as well

@DJ - yeah I have had a couple of rides in the rain, but didn't think it had gotten that wet, I have mudguards on the bike and it seemed ok.

But in terms of cure, is the best bet to simply accept that it has stretched and tighten up to horizontal again (which seems to be a lot of use of the tension nut?) - I've left it to dry out but it isn't pinging back into shape... Or do I get a different saddle for winter?

is there a thick layer of gunk on the underside? or is it dry? if its dry there is not enough proofhide on the bottom and each time it gets wet the water will seep in and it will tend to stretch. it may still apppear to be dry from the top but the bottom may well be wet

how tight you have the saddle is down to your comfort...

More reasons why Brooks saddles are rubbish.

If you don't use mudguards, they can be pretty short lived (unless you do what DJ has been talking about with waterproofing underneath). But how long does an Arione last? Same price as a more expensive brooks.

I always say the team pro is the only brooks worth buying. Now they've re-released the Colt, I'd include those too- blooming awesome. And the new Professional, same as the TP but small rivets. I have had no good life out of any of the others.