Roughly how long does it take for a new Brooks saddle to become anywhere near comfortable?!

14 millenia, by which time it has turned to dust.

Mine was instantly comfy.

Well, I have been riding my Team Pro for 3 weeks now, do 8 miles a day and it is fine, just felt a bit stiff for the first week.

instantly for me

Depends: Honey ones seem soft straight away, brown less so, black tough as army boots.

Also which saddle may affect this: Team Pro seems a lot stiffer/thicker leather than the B17, so consequently takes longer to soften up.

If you want to artifically soften yours a bit, soak the underside in olive oil... Not your best salad oil, the second press cooking stuff will do! Plug up the holes if yours has them (B17, say). Apparently there's some other stuff called wintergreen you can use, but I'm fucked if I know what that is.

also consider that the shape you have may not suit you, try some other styles on friends bikes etc.

And check the angle..

My Black one took about 2 hours in the saddle (one of those in a rainstorm) but it's now firm but fare!

Mmm second press with a hint of Chilli might add a little something...

mine has been killing me lately

Me too. I thought i had mine beaten, but alas, my gooch tells me otherwise.

Cheers Folks. Had it on for a couple days. It's not uncomfortable as such, I think i've got it set up pretty good for me, it's just hard as nails! I think the Oxford ride on Saturday should break the b*tch in!

Ride it in the rain a couple of times, then wait for the callouses to form on your butt.

Had to look this one up...
Gooch, A.K.A. "grundle" is the area that attaches ones sac to ones ass-hole. - Urban Dictionary

AKA the Taint.

It's aint your balls and it aint your arse.

AKA The 'Barse', bit between the balls and the arse.

exactly - more like the saddle's taking you on the Oxford ride to break you in

to be fair I have a "comfortable" Charge saddle, but I must have that bastard set up wrong because my arse is fairly sore as I type...i keep telling myself to HTFU with every pedal stroke...

my desire to fit a b17 is long gone...

Does the charge simply have leather stretched over the rails as its main structure or is there a plastic support underneath? You might find a B17 is more comfortable. I have a honey one that was absolutley lovely from the word go. I rode to Southend on it, the only problems I had were with minor slopes (or in my eyes, cols), not saddlesore. This was the first time I'd ever ridden over 30 miles.

My black B17 was very hard from the get-go. Didn't really improve until it got a little water on it - just enough to sneak under the multiple layers of proofride. It's now just getting better and better.

Honey NOS Swallow, proofed, instant comfort.

Stop showing off fiddy!

My Swallow is making me feel like I wont be having kids...EVEARRHHH- mucho soreness! I'm considering putting my ADAMO saddle back on :(

Keep trying to telling myself to HTFU

PS its black, and has been used everyday almost for two months

Try neatsfoot oil. You can get it from saddleries and (horse) riding shops.

the charge has a plastic support, but i don't think it flexes enough as you pedal, I'll have to try moving it backwards and if that does not work, it may have to go back to fleabay...and then i might have to get a B17 and give it a go.

fuck, you girls need to HTFU. i can ride any saddle, as long as its set-up right and never get any troubles. no need for chamois creme or this other wank.

ppfft. back in my day....

"....I used to messenger in Aus with 4 kangaroos, a dozen koalas and 3 crates of beer strapped to my back and all I had was an old piece of bark due to the infamous saddle embargo of 1872...."

yeah yeah yeah....we've heard it all before.....

In america the gooch is known as the "chode".

There's your random daily trivia.

+1

never understood this breaking in thing with brooks saddles... mine is much the same as when i first got it a year ago and it was perfectly comfortable then.

paper hats all round then

:P

Any saddle?



Back in your day you used to be a runner.. so piss off. Brooks are shit. Mine finally got comfortable when I sold the fucker and bought a proper saddle. Long live Selle Italia!!!

at home in melbourne i have a couple of brooks saddles on touring bikes that belonged to my dad (one a bob jackson, the other a jack taylor). the one on the bob jackson has about 10 years' worth of daily riding worn into it... it's lovely.

but yeah, in melbourne.

yeah dale when did you become a hardcore cyclist? :p

i'm considering selling mine and getting a proper saddle