Brooks B17 Saddle

The Brooks B17 bicycle saddle has been on the market for over 100 years, featuring in the company's catalogue for 1898. Brooks England Ltd still manufacture a wide variety of traditional leather saddles; the iconic Brooks saddle has become a design classic, evoking a bygone age of cycling on the open road, warm summers, and leafy picnics. The B17, from their range of 'Classic Saddles for the serious cyclist', is the flagship model, which Brooks say is ideal for long distance sportive touring, trekking, and all-terrain use. I bought one recently.

It's a thing of beauty. The shaped leather surface is stretched over a simple steel frame consisting of two side rails and a curved cantleplate at the rear to which the leather is rivetted and where the classic Brooks badge is displayed on a small steel plate. There are also three rivets at the front (the 'nose') where the saddle can be tensioned with a chromed steel nut and bolt accessible from underneath. The Brooks logo and 'Champion Standard B.17' are stamped into the leather at each side, and three ventilation holes are punched along the top. Last but not least, there are two saddlebag eyelets below the cantleplate.

The B17 Standard is available coloured either black or honey. Mine, above, is coloured honey. Brooks also makes the B17 S (for women), the B17 Special, with copper-plated metalwork and hand hammered copper rivets (available in three colours and a women's version), and the B17 Titanium (available in four colours). The full range of products is displayed on the Brooks website.

Breaking-in a new Brooks saddle

When new, Brooks saddles are notoriously hard compared to modern gel-padded bicycle saddles. They're reputed to vary a little, as one would expect with leather, but mine came as hard as plywood. Brooks themselves say that the leather on their saddles should never become soft but should be allowed mould itself to your unique anatomy. They advise that attempting to accelerate the breaking-in period by applying oils and waxes will cause a saddle to become a hammock, no longer capable of properly adapting to the rider. Many cyclists report their Brooks saddle to be perfectly comfortable out-of-the-box, others say it can take 1,000 miles or so to break one in, and others advocate that the leather should be soaked and pummeled in various ways until it submits. Of course there are also many cyclists who won't go near a Brooks saddle on the grounds that they're a relic of the past and TV adaptations of Miss Marple and Poirot.

I bought one because, after 25 years of cycling, I've never had a truly comfortable saddle and I want to extend my distances. I knew I might be wasting money on a useless piece of junk, but I was persuaded by cyclists who profess to delight in the joys of a rock-hard saddle. My B17 certainly wasn't comfortable out-of-the-box. It was much too hard, but its shape suited me perfectly so I decided to persevere with it for six weeks or 1,000 miles maximum and then be prepared to throw it away. And I accelerated the breaking-in period, as follows:

Soaking the B17 leather

Instead of applying the Proofide ointment recommended by Brooks I applied Flexalan lanolised leather dressing from a local saddlery. Flexalan is a very runny liquid and will easily soak right through the saddle's 4mm thick leather when applied from underneath – applied on the top, the liquid is reluctant to soak in. It was applied only at the parts of the saddle where the sit-bones make contact with the surface.

After 600 miles, the saddle became comfortable. The soaked areas have begun to dry out and it remains generally hard, but the leather has softened considerably at the point of contact, where the sit-bones pound up and down. It's nicely bouncy but won't become a hammock because along most of the centreline and at the sides (which act as beams) it hasn't softened at all. The soft spots would probably have appeared anyway, without soaking them in Flexalan, but it would have taken longer – and I wasn't prepared to wait.

In the 1960s and earlier, apparently, the Brooks B17 was everyone's racing choice, including professionals. But the pros would have the saddle leather removed, soaked in Neatsfoot oil, and hammered until it was supple. Then it would be reassembled to the saddle frame and secured using very large copper rivets (because it was so soft) and the excess leather at the rear and the nose was trimmed off. Riders always took their saddles with them to a new team, as they were irreplaceable.

Brooks touring saddles

The B17, and the sprung version – the Brooks Flyer, are especially popular with touring cyclists who travel long distances day after day, sometimes for weeks at a time. Comfort becomes crucial. A gel-padded saddle can feel comfortable for a few miles but they tend to cause rubbing around the rider's buttocks and inner thighs, because the sit-bones sink in, pressing into a wider area of the backside than is required for support. As the miles go by, a soft saddle can become unridable as continuous chafing and sweating lead to saddle sores.

Harder saddles made of leather, moulded to the sit-bones, and more naturally breathable, are regarded by many long-distance cyclists as inherently more comfortable. My B17 was certainly comfortable on a recent cycle tour in Denmark.

Illustrated above is a touring bicycle fitted with a well-used honey coloured Brooks Flyer sprung leather saddle. The indentations created by rider's sit-bones are visible on the leather surface over the springs.

Read more about the history of the Brooks B17 saddle »

Posted Friday, March 13th, 2009 at 14:49. Comments welcome.