Ring in the old, ring out the new

I've been unhappy with my new saddle more or less since the day I bought it about a year ago to replace the worn-out one that came with the bike — not least because the bike shop had to make some fairly drastic adjustments in order to get the top of the very thick padded gel saddle down to a height where I could even mount the bike, which had a severe detriment on my riding position!

Today I was very kindly made a gift of an old saddle from a machine that had been broken up for scrap — the 'iconic' Brooks B66 leather saddle, first featured in the Brooks catalogue in 1927 and designed for "city use in an upright posture" with the handlebar set higher than the saddle (and currently costing a hundred pounds new). In order to fit it correctly we ended up raising the seat-post a good two inches, sliding the saddle back on its rails as far as it could go with the clip reversed, and tilting the nose up by what looked like a preposterous amount, in other words creating a vast amount of extra space between my body and the handlebars — and I still had no problems mounting or coming to a stand, both of which were procedures to be carried out only with strain and on tip-toes when using the other saddle (set two inches lower...)( Read more... )