bikerbob1

My LBS suggested I try Neats Foot oil to soften my B17. i purchased a bottle from a local saddlery store. I plugged the hole in the top of the seat and turned it upside down over a bowl to prevent an oil spill on the garage floor. I filled the upside down seat cavity with oil and left it for 24 hours. The seat is absolutely perfect now and most comfortable. However as someone has pointed proper positioning and adjusting on the seat post is most important. WARNINg: If you use the Neats Foot oil treatment, it will change the colour of a lighter colour saddle. My blonde saddle is now chocolate brown

Yo Spiff

I've used neatsfoot oil as well, though I haven't drowned the saddle. Just rubbed a liberal amount in to help speed break in.

raydog

And I remember years ago being told to use neatsfoot oil for leather products. I'm going to buy some and apply it with a small paintbrush (kind of in between the above two posts). Since my seat is black, getting darker isn't an issue!

fietsbob

Pretty much how I use Proofide , heated the saddle in the oven to melt the waxes in the Proofide .

put a big dollop in it , while the saddle was upside down . It soaked it up like a sponge,
and leaves a waxy underside surface ,, one Brooks Pro is now 30 years old..

raydog

Well, some of the guys I ride with make fun of me because I bought a Brooks (they all have skinny little San Marcos and the like). Statements like, "why would you buy a 90 year old design?" SO, I have to prove them wrong! When on my black and grey Pinarrello it looks awesome.

Yo Spiff

Ummm, because the 90 year old design is still made because it WORKS? The artificial saddles didn't become dominant in the market until fairly recently, and I still see plenty of Brooks equipped bikes on the road.

Retro Grouch 

And somebody LOVES every single one of them, including the truely weird designs. Brooks saddles solved the "numb manhood" issue for me, but I still don't think they fit everybody.

raydog

This thread has been very enlightening for me.....one thing I'm now doing is only using the Brooks for outside/road use, including the completion of it's breakin. I (during the Winter) ride about 130 miles weekly on a Computrainer with many other riders at the LBS. I put my synthetic "barcalounger" seat on my indoor training bike because my idea/sense is.....indoor training (at least mine) is incredibly intense, no let up and more seat time in one position for me than my typical road rides (simply less position changes and no coasting)....THEREFORE, indoors being not as good a place to break in the Brooks!
BTW, this seems wordy to me but I really appreciate delving into the little things in bicycling through shared dialog because they are simply not that little! To a non cyclist this discussion probably seems foolish, to me, shared information/experiences on this forum are incredibly important.

KrisPistofferson

I waited for a couple years before I found a B17 at what I considered the "right price," (opinions vary,) and it was more comfortable than anything I'd owned straight out of the box. Still haven't treated it or anything and it's great. Be more liable to pay full price, (and they're more expensive now,) since I've had the positive experience of owning one. Plus they look way sharper than any newfangled saddle. But that's just me, opinions are all over the place with these things. Sort of like a lot of cycling stuff, to find out what your opinion's going to be, you have to shell out serious cash. This is why I probably spent more in my first three years of serious cycling than I'll ever spend in the future, and I'm still fairly young.

raydog

You hit that nail on the head, in about 3 years, I already have two boxes of higher end "take off" parts....it seemed so important at the time! So far the end result for me is, I have some great back up parts and have learned how quick $500 can disappear!

Nermal

No raydog. You now have two boxes of 'spare parts'.

So do I, including an endless supply of seat and trunk bags that didn't work out nearly as well in real life.

BikeSpds

Keep riding the Team Pro. Mine took about 1500 miles to break in, and as you said, one day like magic, it was just amazingly comfortable. Put a B-17 on my other bike, and that wasn't bad out of the box--but the Pro is still better. You'll notice that the leather on the Pro is almost twice as thick as on the B-17, which helps explain why it is so hard to break in.

Soon, you'll be immensly pleased with the 90 year old design.

Hope for a short winter.

bikerbob1

My LBS suggested a Neats Foot Oil treatment to soften my B17. I purchased a bottle of Neats Foot oil from a local saddlery store, took the seat off the bike, plugged the holes in the top, put it upside down over a large bowl in case it leaked. I then filled the cavity with Neats Foot Oil and left it for 24 hours. The leather softened and the seat is now really comfortable. As someone else mentioned a proper adjustment is a must. WARNING: The Neats Foot Oil will discolour a light coloured saddle. My blonde saddle is now chocolate brown

Retro Grouch 

Just be sure to wear black shorts.

fietsbob

Yea don't want Black Butt on your Khakis ..

Road Fan

Hate to sound like a doctor, but, ... can you tell us where it hurts? Seriously, different setup or saddle problems cause pain in different areas of your "undercarriage."

raydog

Please refer to post #11 for the pain location.
Yesterday (Monday Jan 2) I rode 112 miles with a gel seat and the last 30 miles was awful, I believe, due to residual "damage" from last weeks Brooks riding. Thick padded shorts, cushy gel seat and 2 Naproxen tabs didn't help much! I love "ongoing experiments" but not when the hiney is the subject! Seriously, if I'd waited a couple more days before a big ride, I probably would've faired better.

Doohickie

It invariably happens between 1 and 10,000 miles.

Doohickie

I've never paid that much for a BIKE, let alone just the seat.

bay area biker

I have a B17 and it fit me very comfortably right out of the box. I tend to agree with the person who said you "may just not have a Brooks butt". All the lore about soaking in oil and whatnot, I don't agree with. Setup and position are important, to be sure, but beyond that I think there's no point torturing yourself. Personally I've found it a little LESS comfortable as it's broken in. It seemed to have been made-to-measure for me in its pristine state. I'm getting ready to lace mine in order to restore its original shape.

Nermal

Agree, bay area. It is possible to prematurely age a Brooks, just like any other leather good. Nothing against moistening the saddle before riding, or a light application of oil, but for some of us, even a B-17 is a hefty investment to be soaking in oil.

cyclist2000

maybe you don't have a brooks pro butt. have you tried other models? I think it should be somewhat comfortable out of the box. If mine wasn't I would have gotten rid of it right away

I got a pro last year and rode it on my trainer over the winter, never painful but no major improvement either. I think my rear is conditioned from years of riding to any saddle.

I have read that the B-17 is a great saddle but I had a pro on my raleigh back in 1970 and it was fine so I went with the same thing, I also went with the pro because the B-17 looked a little too flat and I like the rounded shape of a concur saddle.

bored117 

Reason I bought mine from Wallbike while back. (100% satisfaction guarantee for 6 months or something like that) I did get B17 Narrow Imperial while back. Couldn't get comfortable with it no matter what I tried. After about 1000 miles... (less than 2 months), I returned it and got B17 regular to see. World of difference right away. I was rather comfy from get go on it. Only thing I had issues with it was my nether region got numb when riding over an hour on non cycling kit (no chamois basically).
On my the other bike I ended up getting Selle Italia Superflow and that feels better for me.
Basically, very personal choices and I believe if brooks saddle will work for you, it will work decently even pre breaking in from my experience.

raydog

Well today I lathered up the underneath quite heavily and will reinstall it on my road bike for more miles. One other thing, as mentioned above, I noticed that my Ti Pro is VERY much thicker than any other Brooks seats I've examined. I even had a pro Brooks guy feel the Pro's leather and be really surprised how much thicker the leather was than his. That simply tells me that the break in process will be longer so that's what I'm prepared for! Maybe at some point, as suggested above, I just don't have Brooks DNA! It'll be August and after many miles if and when I come to that conclusion. I certainly will post my results.

Looigi

I had a Brooks that I rode on-and-off for something like 10 years, back in the day. For me, it was nothing special and I used other saddles. It's been gone for years and I'm pretty sure I just tossed it in the trash with a bunch of other old cycling stuff. Kinda wish I still had it as it'd probably worth a few bux even though well worn. Brooks certainly work well for some, but they are quite different from the type of saddles I currently prefer.