Mike from Iowa

I was getting ready to ride home from work yesterday and noticed that the saddle bag loop on my Brooks B72 had ripped out and the eyelet was still attached to my bag strap:




I got this saddle as a Christmas gift from my wife in 2011. I keep the bike indoors when not riding, I have a Carradice Nelson long flap bag, but typically it only has a tool bag, my rain poncho, lock and chain, and lunch, so it's not very heavy. There is a rack on the back that supports the bag too.

I called my LBS guy where it came from today, he said he'd check with Brooks.

Has anyone else had this problem?

fietsbob

I have not ..


The Brooks Pro I got 30 years ago, never had any loops at all , I added bolt to the rails bag loops , steel .


Yours would have survived if just a wee tool bag was fitted at most, ..



but, D'oh ! .. tore out when you packed up a Carradice Camper Nelson long flap , spring action and

lock and chain probably did it, shifting around and all . was the bag strapped to the seat post too,?



Overloaded sheared off, as its just a grommet in leather , adding just a bit of stability, at most .

and another way to support the load rather than a grommet in a piece of leather would be better..

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/thorn-acc...22924/?geoc=us




there are Brooks saddle frames that have the bag loop on the rear steel part instead, I think .. that would be a better option


something else in the Brooks catalog . B67? Wire loops not looking real sturdy though..

https://www.brooksengland.com/catalog...eavy+duty/B67/


I have a Carradice (superC) on a separate sub frame and a rear rack . (I was also adapting non leather saddle)

Decades of use .. Pro was bought in the mid 70's..

It's been used on a few long bike tours , but then the load was primarily in panniers ..

rootboy 

That's a shame. Doubtful it's still under warranty, but worth a try. If not, you might have to put a custom butchering clean up cut on that leather and use the saddle rails for your bag straps instead, if possible.

Or…if you wanted to get creative, and have the time, you could stitch a heavy replacement piece over the old slots and…..uh...em….nah.

rhm

It's a common problem, I'm afraid. That style of bag loop used to be pretty common on Brooks and other saddle brands, and they've almost all phased it out. I have seen quite a few B.72's that are torn in this way, as well as old B.17's that had this type of bag loop. I can think of various ways to fix it... not too inelegantly....

lostarchitect 

That... sounds pretty dang heavy to me. Sorry man, that's a bummer.

Chombi

Yes, +1^^
With all that stuff dangling and the bag flapping around, the leather gets pulled and stretched constantly, eventually causing it to tear at the loop....
Bag loops should be always welded to the cantle or bolted to the rails if they are expected to last...

juvela

you could always go with a set of Andrew Hague fittings. they mount on the saddle rails:

Andrew Hague Cycles

Mike from Iowa

Hey everyone, many thanks for the suggestions and advice. I went and looked at my 40 year old B72 and sure enough the metal frame covers the bag loops on the inside. I had never noticed that difference on this new saddle.

RHM- I sent you a private message.

-Mike

Mike from Iowa

So I ran in to one of our local Bike Gods downtown today at lunch time (I *think* he's Noah Scape here on BF. Anyway, sure enough BOTH bag loops are ripped out on his B72 saddle... I guess it will be one more thing for me to notice on other people's bikes.

a77impala

Not much leather to hold a bag! I find the loops on a B17 frame eat the straps on the bag, I mount the bag to the rails, no problem.

rootboy 

Mike, inspired by this thread, I too went and looked at an old B-72 of a similar age. Came off a '63 Frejus. On mine, while the metal cantle plate does extend behind the bag loop slot, the construction is similar to your saddle that failed. That is, the metal grommet is only attached to the leather and there is no additional support provided by the cantle plate. FWIW.