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How to break in rock hard Berthoud saddle?

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How to break in rock hard Berthoud saddle?

Old 04-14-21, 12:11 PM
  #26  
FastJake
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Originally Posted by Carbonfiberboy
You don't break in a leather saddle. You break in your butt. Yes, hurts like the devil. The trick is to ride almost every day but not too long to start with. That works best. If riding every day hurts, you're riding too long. Eventually you find your sit bone area goes numb and then you're good for all day.
I'm pretty sure the sit bone area is not supposed to go numb... In any case, my butt is very much broken in. I can ride 200 miles in a day on a plastic saddle without pain or significant discomfort. I heard leather saddles are supposed to be better, but maybe not for me.

Originally Posted by tcs
I hate to encourage you to throw good money after bad, but the tops of Berthouds are replaceable...
I've considered this, but it seems likely I'll ride another thousand miles of misery just to find out I now have $430 invested in a saddle that I hate. Ok, I can recoup some of that by selling it, but how much?
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Old 04-14-21, 12:28 PM
  #27  
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Originally Posted by FastJake
I'm pretty sure the sit bone area is not supposed to go numb... In any case, my butt is very much broken in. I can ride 200 miles in a day on a plastic saddle without pain or significant discomfort. I heard leather saddles are supposed to be better, but maybe not for me.
I've considered this, but it seems likely I'll ride another thousand miles of misery just to find out I now have $430 invested in a saddle that I hate. Ok, I can recoup some of that by selling it, but how much?
well, given your riding experience and what seems as someone who is aware of how riding can feel on a seat that works for you (300k, wow) then it really does seem that this thing has much much stiffer, thicker or whatever leather than the ones I have.

and yes, 1600kms and still no joy, or still acutely aware of the seat under you, is a real drag. None of my Brooks have been that long before things started becoming more, "not think anymore about the seat under me" thing.

the "putting small slightly wet cloths under your sitbone area" trick seems like a reasonable tryout. Basically it will replicate how Ive sweated so much that my saddles become dark. I really did notice that my first B17 seemed to break in better on the first rides when it was super hot and humid.
Without seeing and feeling your saddle to compare, its so hard to have an idea of how it is.
Along with the wet cloth thing, I also heard of people using a golf ball afterwards , maybe baseball, to push on the specific sitbone area to depress it a bit when damp.....who knows.

would you take a shot of it very similar to the shot of mine, angle and lighting and whatnot. Im curious to see how "new" it looks. (not from above, we wont see the relief)

in the end though, I guess at some point you might as well just sell it. there has to be a market for it.
(and frankly, I think you've been more patient than most of us, 1600 kms is a lot of riding....)
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Old 04-14-21, 01:24 PM
  #28  
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The Brooks Conquest in the photo used to be Brooks Honey color, but after several years of touring and Brooks Proofide applications, it has gotten much darker with age. And it now is my most comfortable saddle.



I checked my records, I bought that saddle in Aug 2006, built up the bike in the photo in spring 2013, photo was taken in summer 2019. I usually put that saddle on the bike that I will tour on because it has proven to handle long consecutive days in the saddle quite well. Or, perhaps I should say that with that saddle, I have handled long consecutive days in the saddle quite well. I have three different touring bikes, so the saddle gets moved around a bit.

Regarding Proofide and the underside of the saddle, I do add it on both top and underside.
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Old 04-14-21, 04:17 PM
  #29  
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I am a new member, but a long time roadie that is newer to touring. I tried a Berthoud on my touring bike, but like you FastJake I could never get comfortable on it. I tried using Proofide on it a few times and I live in Florida and have ridden it on long rides on hot days, all to no avail. After several hundred miles I finally gave up. It is a beautiful saddle, but it and my butt just don’t get along. I will probably sell it.
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Old 04-14-21, 05:44 PM
  #30  
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Originally Posted by FastJake
I'm pretty sure the sit bone area is not supposed to go numb... In any case, my butt is very much broken in. I can ride 200 miles in a day on a plastic saddle without pain or significant discomfort. I heard leather saddles are supposed to be better, but maybe not for me.
<snip>
That's what worked for me as a teen-ager, when leather was all there was in terms of road bike saddles. That saddle was an Italia. Centuries no problem once my butt got used to it. The saddle did not change at all. OTOH, that was over 55 years ago. My butt is not the same, for sure.

The leather thing is a tiny corner of the bike world with dedicated aficionados. I did randonneuring up until a few years ago. Out of 100 starters on a 400k, there might have been 2 leather saddles. Plus there's the whole rainwater thing. The leather folks are way over-represented in saddle threads on BF. I don't carry a torch for any particular saddle. I think there's a good reason why there are hundreds of different saddle models. It's not just capitalism run amuck.
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Old 04-14-21, 05:59 PM
  #31  
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Originally Posted by Carbonfiberboy
That's what worked for me as a teen-ager, when leather was all there was in terms of road bike saddles. That saddle was an Italia. Centuries no problem once my butt got used to it. The saddle did not change at all. OTOH, that was over 55 years ago. My butt is not the same, for sure.

The leather thing is a tiny corner of the bike world with dedicated aficionados. I did randonneuring up until a few years ago. Out of 100 starters on a 400k, there might have been 2 leather saddles. Plus there's the whole rainwater thing. The leather folks are way over-represented in saddle threads on BF. I don't carry a torch for any particular saddle. I think there's a good reason why there are hundreds of different saddle models. It's not just capitalism run amuck.
I strongly suspect you are right on the overrepresentation thing, and I agree with you on all kinds of seat options out there. I'm sure at some point I will find a non leather seat that works great for me, for now a big part for me is that the things work very well for me, so I'm just simply reticent to change something that works.
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Old 04-15-21, 07:08 AM
  #32  
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Originally Posted by Carbonfiberboy
The leather thing is a tiny corner of the bike world with dedicated aficionados. I did randonneuring up until a few years ago. Out of 100 starters on a 400k, there might have been 2 leather saddles. Plus there's the whole rainwater thing. The leather folks are way over-represented in saddle threads on BF. I don't carry a torch for any particular saddle. I think there's a good reason why there are hundreds of different saddle models. It's not just capitalism run amuck.
That may be a regional thing in the PNW. I'd guess 1/2 to 3/4 of the bikes I saw when I was riding brevets had leather saddles.
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Old 04-15-21, 10:36 AM
  #33  
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Originally Posted by pdlamb
That may be a regional thing in the PNW. I'd guess 1/2 to 3/4 of the bikes I saw when I was riding brevets had leather saddles.
I think leather is less common now than it used to be. I do not see many in use.

I remembered seeing this several years ago, took a few minutes with help from Google to find a copy, note from a survey how many PBP riders from USA in 2007 used leather saddles.
https://postrestant.co.uk/wp-content/...quipsurvey.pdf
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Old 04-15-21, 12:51 PM
  #34  
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In my experience and observation, leather saddles seem to work well with a more relaxed pace and riding position. Synthetic saddles seem to work better with a more aggressive riding position and they last longer with zero maintenance. Of course this is a broad generalization, but I can think of a couple examples of fast randonneurs I know who tried leather saddles for a while and gravitated back to synthetic. I still see a fair amount of leather among the experienced steel-frame-use-all-the-time-allowed crowd.
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