SoreFeet

My greatest fear has come true. I have been told that vintage brooks saddles are better than the modern offerings. It is true. If your going to shell out 40-100$ on a saddle it should not be a modern brooks.

My brand spanking new Brooks Champion Flyer saddles sags. It's awful. It's a butt hatchet. I can't really enjoy it. The bottom line is Brooks does not care about quality. They have become popular again and the quality suffers.

I adjusted the tensnion bolt, but all it did was make the tension bolt slip and lose more tension of the hide. I hope my local shop will at least send the saddle back to brooks for an inspection and replacement. It's not okay for this to happen. Why buy a 100$ seat if it is only good for 50 miles.

The bottom line is any 10-20 year old brooks is going to be better than the new ones. Brooks does not properly cure and tension the saddles today. It's much cheaper to slap on the hide without curing it. They simple bolt the leather and expect it to be stable. It's not...It's a lousy quality hide at a largely inflated price.


I

Uprighter

So who's getting traditional leather saddles right for the same or lower prices? Any recommendations?

Capecodder

I found my Brooks saddle to be just fine. They settle in and take the shape of your sits bones, but nothing more then that. That has been my experience with modern Brooks saddles. I'm sure even in the days of old, Brooks put out a bum (no pun intended) saddle once in a while.

cobrabyte

My champion flyer (bought new) is still great after two years. I also have a couple B-17 saddles and a B66 - all bought new. None have had any problems with quality. You know, it is possible for a saddle to leave the factory that did not meet quality inspection standards...you may have ended upwith one of those. Heck, it was just as possible for something like that to happen 30 years ago....but no internet forums to report on it. I think their products are made to a very high standard today as well as in the past, speaking from personal experience.

shnibop 

you only got 50 miles out of a brand new Brooks saddle? personal question but, how much do you weigh and how much does your ass sweat?

i don't doubt for a second that since it's inception Brooks has changed it ways of production and probably lowered it's standard a bit, but you're making a pretty harsh claim IMO.

the Flyer is supposed to be "made with our extra tough, organic leather for high mileage cyclists" and you've used it up in 50 miles?

got pics?

rhm

I, too, have had problems with new Brooks saddles. But I got closer to 2000 miles out of mine before I retired them. 50 miles is ridiculous.

Michael Angelo 

I've got a Wrights Saddle that's over 40 years old. Still works, but I retired it today. Replaced it with a nicely broken in Brooks pro.

frantik

for people who care about how animals are treated before they are killed and their skin used to make overpriced bike parts

rootboy 

Send it to them. They'll probably treat you right.

shipwreck

Guess I complained on the last thread about brooks, but my two cents again. My champion flyer is a hammock. 200 pounds, I do sweat a lot, but have more miles on an older brooks with more rain riding and it still looks like a saddle. Lacing helped a bit, but I would not take it on another tour.

Velognome 

I've got several 'new" Brooks saddles, B17, Flyer & Swift, the B17 and Swift havve well over 3K miles each and no problems and I'm 230lbs on a light day.

Unless it was drowned in Proofhide or rode wet, I can not imagine it developing a sag in 50 miles.

Guitarrick

I have ~400 miles on a new B17 Aged saddle that came stock on a Sojourn. At first there was a little discomfort. That would be due to my slacking off laziness not riding for quite some time. Surprisingly, on my third 20 or so mile long ride it fit me like a pair of Birkenstocks. Lots of love for Brooks over here.

cb400bill

I recently picked up a new B17 Aged and find it to be quite comfortable. I did a 40 mile mile ride the first time out and 76 miles the next time. I have about 250 miles on it now. No discomfort or sagging to be found.

BTW, I weighed 184 this morning.

gomango

Good grief, thanks to the internet, folks can pop on here and say anything.

I have four "newish" Brooks saddles that replaced twenty+ year old versions.

I happen to think Brooks Swifts and Swallows are just right, and have met all expectations.

My aunt just came back from England with a beautiful, light colored Swallow last week for me.

I sleep easy knowing it will be a delight to own, and if it isn't, Brooks will make it right.

To the op, have you tried talking to the original vendor about your dis-satisfaction?

-holiday76

my 3 year old brooks champion flyer narrow has about 6k miles on it and it's sagging a bit. It's also my most comfortable saddle. I'm not sure it will make it to 50k miles since the leather does seem to be thinner than the older brooks i've owned, but honestly I'm not sure I'll make it another 50k so who cares.

Puget Pounder

50 miles is nothing at all. I can even ride a brooks for several hundred miles and still have it look new.

No problems with my Team Pro and my gf's B17.

AZORCH

It seems like there have been several recent threads about Brooks quality, or lack thereof. Like many of you, I haven't experienced the issues. I have several saddles that are vintage and a couple more that are new (as in purchased within the past two years.) These include a new Flyer - one of the most comfortable touring seats ever, IMHO - a couple of vintage B17s, a vintage Brooks Pro, and others. Brooks has been incredibly responsive whenever I've contacted them and I've found they resolve problems immediately. (Maybe it's a Brit thing because I've found Carradice to also be a company that bent over backwards for me.) In any event, I'm very, very pleased with Brooks quality, both new and old.

mazdaspeed

FWIW the brooks team pro I had, and my girlfriend's b17s (both sold) both seemed extremely well made. Would have kept them forever if brooks sold their saddles with longer rails.

tugrul

This is the OP's second thread on the topic.

Brooks Saddle Quality going down the tubes

Velognome 

Is the OP a shill for a competitor?

trekday2100

Put a brown B17 on the Univega and it's still breaking me in. Did notice some wrinlkling of the leather around the rivets but no sagging after 300 miles. Put on a layer or Obenauf's under and over the saddle. Hope it holds up.

clubman 

Why would you adjust the tensioner on a new saddle? If it didn't feel comfortable then, sell it "toute de suite", And how many rotations of the spanner did you make trying to reshape this saddle. Take pics and show us...might wanna buy it off you. Add it to my collection. Cheap too

Too be fair, the Flyers are a totally different cut and approach from their other stock. Mine wore out after a year of two of commuting 4 seasons on a mtn bike. It got darned uncomfortable and I gave it to a newbie friend/rider who fell in love with brooks at that point,

auchencrow

I have only good things to say about Brooks, but if ever I did have a problem, I think they would resolve it,

blaise_f

You're nuts. Both modern and vintage Brooks are great. That said, I've found that Brooks has changed two crucial things in their modern saddles. 1) The leather thickness varies by an oz or so (thinner than that of vintage). 2) The frame is now stamped steel instead of being cast, as it was in the past. All that said, there are some people (albeit a very small percentage) that never become accustomed to Brooks' saddles.

satbuilder 

Perhaps "sorefeet" isn't the best screen name for the OP.

Just sayin.