superpletch

I purchased a really cool rain guard by "ass-savers". Designed specifically for brooks saddle, it folds and clips under saddle when not in use and unfolds and extends behind seat when needed, protecting underside of saddle and spray from rear wheel on your back.

For the self deprecating liberal freak, cows are tasty and their hide makes awesome saddles.

Phil_gretz

Except that the meat industry allows nothing to go to waste that can be used for fertilizer, exotic eating (don't ask), leather production, or a variety of lesser uses. Don't worry, animals are not raised simply to harvest hides to make hatbands, handbags or holsters...

irwin7638

I use Brooks saddles and fenders so most of the time they stay dry. I also use a helmet cover in the rain which doubles as a handy saddle cover while the bike's parked. That being said, all my saddles have gotten soaked at one point or another and I've had no problem. I rub a little Kiwi Mink Oil paste on them once or twice a year and that's it.

Marc

Yesh

introduction: why am I here writing this...

this week I had planned to buy two tensioned leather saddles off ebay and I forgot to bid on either!! I am pretty bummed out! one was a Dia compe Gran compe in pink went for 18$ looked brand new!! the other was an aged Wrights no one bid on it could have been mine for 9$ (it was a bit crusty)

anyway so here I am!
have never tried a saddle like this but the current one I'm riding really makes me want to! it is a fancy looking thing I found at goodwill, huge full cut out, two big extra padded circles on the back for the sit bones, but man after about one hour it gets bad, then hour two WORSE! especially if you've got a backpack on. (35 miles yesterday with a backpack)

ive been reading about all the extra care these leather ones require and trouble with leaving them in the rain (everything degrades in the sun, especially here in TX, so there is no penalty to be had there) from reading this thread I hear many conflicting stories so I am none the wiser some say the thing will sag to the rails if soaked, some say 10 years no proofide no problems!

anyway I guess my quest for comfort goes on! considering the cambium route or perhaps reverse engineering/ making my own synthetic tensioned 'hammock' saddle.

I also have to add IMO that the flamer does have a good point that leather for the most part is to be avoided! during the year 2015 I worked for a boutique leathercraft company right here in Austin, TX. It was more like a sweatshop than anything basically a dead end for deadbeat washouts, drug addicts, and misfits... sorta like most chain restauraunts, but with a toxic twist!

there were little to no safety protections in place it was really just like, don't ask - don't tell! the leather was of the hair on type and we were all constantly breathing in the hair and fluff all day, I took to wearing a 3m dust mask non stop but everyone else thought I was just being paranoid! we also used lots of two part polyurethane by the bucket load! see anyone in a respirator, or even dustmask... nope. but that's beside the point.

anyway I quit promptly after learning the the leather we used was tanned using the chromium tanning process which basically makes it very very bad!! about 80% of all worldwide leather production is done this way to cut time and costs and the side effect is that it is not good to touch it or you can be poisoned, and also above about 80 degrees it begins to off-gas some seriously bad hexavalent chromium gasses.. and if it burns and you catch a whiff... instant cancer!!

anyway I was outta there pretty quick when I found out!!! been focusing on health these last two years and hoping to overcome the damage I must have done at that place!

met a guy outside the ACL fest right before I quit from brazil we talked a while. He told me that there was a very weird 'tanning village' like 20 miles from where he lived as a kid. people would always come from there into town to get supplies at the bigger stores. he said they scared him a lot when he was a kid they were kinda like zombies! always missing tons of teeth and the rest were grayed out and rotten, horrible rashes all over their bodies. the real mustard here folks... I believed him. I had been researching similar stuff during the previous month and this bit struck a nerve I quit shortly thereafter!

just pointing out that the dark underbelly of industries like that often trickle upward and next thing you know the whole 'that sort of thing doesn't happen in america' is out the window and its more like 'I'm being poisoned to death by my employer and they don't even care!'

that said id very much like to know where brooks gets their leather from (hopefully not Italy or brazil like the place I worked at!) prolonged contact with the bad stuff under sweaty conditions in a particularly sensitive area... you get the picture!

Subsequently I did learn how to tan leather with rubbing alcohol and vegetable glycerine (rattlesnake skin!) it makes for a nice non toxic product just like indigenous cultures used to make! (a lot of them also would use piss and animal brains to tan the stuff! pretty gross, but non toxic!) (the rattlesnake skin is still hangin in the garage I was thinking about making a bar wrap out of it LOL!)

I also do very very much wonder WHY OH WHY is there not a bigger market share devoted to saddles that are 1) comfortable like tensioned leather 2) repairable and disassemble-able 3) non toxic and low maintenance.

---some statements.

*most saddles are not real workhorses! ride them far enough and you will hurt!

*leather saddles and the like are holdovers from a bygone era. many say that they are the best available and they have not seen significant improvement/modernization perhaps because IF IT AINT BROKE DONT FIX IT!

*the saddle is arguably the most important part of a bike intended to be used for real daily transportation.

*all this points to a sort of psychological blind spot. with so many smart hardworking people out there we should really have a saddle that feels like a brooks, performs in all weather conditions, and is fully strippable with cheap replacement parts available for routine maintenance and repair... (just like anything else on a bike!)

*it is not profitable to make such a product or it would be made!

*someone needs to bite the bullet and make one anyway, the same could be said of a lot of good ideas that are lurking on the periphery of capitalism

*maybe the government should subsidize such things for the greater good! that's what they are there for after all Right???

*OMG I think I have officially gone off the deep end...

*many leather saddle riders care as much about the aesthetics as they do about the comfort! especially urban riders *cough*hipsters*cough*

*brooks et all will not risk changing the look/design/build of their products significantly because the trusted 1890s look sells big!

*I digress

anyway why am I posting here again! I really want one of these tensioned leather saddles! never had one!
had very bad experiences with leather! so an option 3 would be nice...

would like something comfy! I like to ride far! but I do like my things to be Bombproof as the BMXers say
be prepared as the boy scouts say. id also like to live to be old and gray.


I think I'm gonna try a cambium! I don't think they were available when most of this thread was typed pre 2013
not really very serviceable looking but much better than what I'm riding now! just got to find one cheap!!

anyway sorry to ramble!! had to back up spoke man or whatever his name is. be smart and make informed decisions always! ******** are usually just trying to help so be gentle and meet them half way every time! you just might learn a thing or two about a thing or two!

tried my best to stay within the lines of the OPs question, perhaps more along the lines of PROS and CONS of tensioned leather saddles in general and or 'should I get one?'

which is a question I am asking myself right now

also tried to address the conflicting views that flared up mid thread... thoroughly and factually based on my own life experience.

THE END

goodnight all

rhm

Yes, I read it all, and I enjoyed it.

I can tell you a couple things. First: bicycle saddles are made from vegetable tanned leather, not chromium tanned.

I don't know much about traditional tanning processes, involving tannins from acorns or whatever, but I know it smells awful. I would not want to work in a tannery, or downwind of one. I would guess that the town in Brazil, that your friend mentioned, was tanning leather in a more or less traditional manner... very nasty, but not as nasty as chromium.

So if you didn't want to use leather, I sympathize. But on the other hand, what do you think the synthetic options are? Chemical factories, oil refineries, plastic processing, well, I don't want to work there, or live downwind of that either.

And maybe it's just me, but I'd rather ride my bike past fields full of cows, even if I know they will become cheeseburgers and shoes and bicycle saddles, than past oil wells, even if I know oil wells are necessary if we want tires for our bicycles.

I can tell you all about how a leather bike saddle is made. But all you really need to know is, veg tanned leather gets soft when it gets wet. To make a leather saddle, you get the leather really wet, and then stretch the heck out of it. It gets hard again when it dries. It's not a big deal to let it get wet after that, but if you ride it while it's wet, you'll stretch it into the wrong shape. There are various ways to keep it from getting wet, once it's in the form of a saddle; I'm experimenting with beeswax.

I have not tried a Brooks Cambium saddle. I'd like to. But I'm still trying to figure out how to make the perfect leather saddle, so I ride those.

takenreasy

As said earlier, put a bag on it in the rain.

WillAdams

Pretty much decided on a Brooks Cambium C15 All Weather --- just sort of wish that they'd chosen titanium instead of fiberglass for the structure.

How compatible are the various sizes? If I bought a regular Cambium C15 and an All Weather, could I dismantle them and swap the parts around?

fietsbob

Mine (30+ year old Team Professional) came off the Touring bike for indoor storage while that bike formerly with the Brooks went in the basement,

the fruiting body of a mushroom is a Fungus , propagated by Spores,, it's the pneumonia that is from bacteria,(or viral),
colds and influenza are from viruses..

If the Brooks, were to be left in the (dry but unheated) basement.. there is a layer of mildew on it. , that is a fungal thing..





.....

fietsbob

my 1st internet search, bing always focuses on sellers, because they get kickbacks..

here is the manufacturers site.. looks like the rails for most are still metal..

only the nose piece or the back one went from aluminum to a composite ,,

there was a composite substructure in Carbon fiber 15, for the gram counting focused race bike addicts.
there is a 17, and a 19 width..
https://www.brooksengland.com/en_us/s...her-black.html

being expensive, and easy to flip on Ebay , they will get stolen too..







.....

Archwhorides 

I didn't realize until I read your post that Brooks is making the Cambium "All Weather" version (nylon frame vs. cast aluminum). I see that the AW is less expensive, but what other advantage does it have? The regular C15 is waterproof and with the cast aluminum frame it is beautiful, strong and lighter than the AW. It seems that swapping parts (nose and tail frame elements) would be possible, but I'm curious, why would anyone bother?

fietsbob

the prior Cambium used cotton canvas, placed in the mold, to be the surface... nylon fabric replaced the cotton,

Composites instead of the aluminum ends..

I expect the fiber was in a chopped filler form, and mixed in with the nylon melted pellets , if that was used for the end plates..

so cheaper to produce..

I suspect the machines are in the Italian factory, Selle Royale, that also produce the Fizik line of products..




...

noglider 

I've been buying Brooks saddles that are past their halfway point in life, so they only last a few years for me. I had one fail on me a few years ago, and I have another one about to fail. No complaints, though. I recently got a Cambium and plan to try it soon. I'm optimistic.

WillAdams

Ideally I'd have:

- nylon shell (All Weather)
- metal body --- lightweight (from the normal Cambium line)

(and I suppose I'll also have to source a spare nut/cover to replace the one w/ the size information on it)

I'll probably just get an All Weather and be done w/ it --- it's pretty much the last thing I need to kit out my bicycle, except for a couple of wheelsets and some tires (and the Geoorbital Wheel)

Archwhorides 

When I need to lock up my bike, I run a ferruled cable through the slot in my C17 Carved saddle, and secure it to the U-lock. Been doing this for a while, no-one has cut the cable to get the saddle so far....

Archwhorides 

OK, I can see that the nylon shell is desirable (although the canvas has held up well for me in all conditions).

I've found that I need to grease the aluminum frame front-piece to keep it from clicking audibly when I ride - I suppose that the composite version of the frame might be quieter, just guessing.

HerrKaLeun

leather is made by nature to be on the animal to keep water out etc. animals stand in the rain, snow, sun and the leather still is good. OK, it is still alive and regenerates... but leather also has been used for saddles and other uses for millennia without much worry about the rain. As long as it dries occasionally, it will be fine. Put on Proofide annually, maybe put a cover on when it rains if you think you need it. That is all that is needed. Maybe some aesthetic damage, but no actual damage.

Unless you store the bike outside and never ride it, normal wear will destroy it before rain or sun does.

fietsbob

Only the C 13 is not metal rail , its CF for the Carbon Fiber fans ..

WillAdams

@fietsbob --- there's also a new Brooks Cambium C 15 All Weather which has a fiberglass-reinforced nylon body.

fietsbob

look again at the website.

frame is back piece , rails , nose piece, rubber and the cover bonded together top surface is not the 'body'..


rails still metal.


Note: it does not matter to me I did not start this thing. I have a Fizik Vitesse , from a old Brompton ordered batch

on the bike I'm going to ride to & bring in the Pub.







...

revcp 

Yeah, like everyone else: fenders, Proofide (top only), and rain cover (I use a Jandd saddle cover). This is for commuting and touring. So, yeah, the answer is protect it, keep it dry.