Brooks B17 Special Saddle

I have tried a number of well respected saddles on my Giant TCX2 but I think this beats them in looks and comfort. This is the ultimate saddle in many ways. Not only will you be buying a piece of British cycling history, it's still made in Britain by a small team of dedicated craftsmen. The quality of workmanship is outstanding. It makes me proud to be British. If I won the lottery I'd buy loads of them! It's such a thing of beauty I'd happily put it on my mantlepiece if I didn't need it on the bike. You may read reports that it's uncomfortable until broken in. Opinions vary on the break in time from 100 miles to 1000 miles. It is true that the more miles you do the more comfortable it gets but it is pretty comfy from the off. Look after it and it will outlive you. Highly recommended.

I found the standard saddle on my bike a little too hard and I don't want to search out cycling shorts every time I want to jump on the bike for a ride. I bought the Brookes as it came with good recommendations and also suited my ride. When I first put it on it was hard, however after a few weeks of riding it started to wear in and now after a year of riding it is really comfortable. I followed the instructions and as recommended treat the saddle with Proofride and I am sure that this has kept the saddle supple and in excellent condition. Despite the initial cost I would highly recommend, just be patient with the breaking in period which shouldn't take more than a few weeks, and this is worth it for the comfort you will experiance when it's broken in.

A thing of beauty. The copper rivets set it apart. The saddle is obviously stiff when new but it's still better than the one that came with the bike. Absorbs the bumps better and looks classy on my red road bike with flat risers. I bought some Brooks Proofide to help it break in. I can move it to the next bike, so it's a worthy investment.I ordered the Brooks honey leather slim grips to match, but they are too expensive for what they really are, especially with my bar ends and mirror, so I have returned them to wrap the existing grips and bar ends in Brooks microfibre bar tape in honey instead.

Top notch so very good

I've bought a few Brooks saddles as I have Brooks on all my (five) current bikes and on most of those I've had in the past.I opted for the B17 standard width as it was for a single-speed with quite an upright riding position. I have subsequently bought a B17 narrow for a road bike and the back of the saddle is about 25mm narrower which works better with drop bars. I really like the honey colour which looks very classy and I'm sure will look even better with use.The B17 special does look lovely with its large copper rivets, and has been very comfortable even from the first ride.

Superb quality with a copperised under frame and rivets.Comes complete with a sachet of Proofide, Brook's own recommended leather treatment to assist with breaking in.AND a waterproof cover, saving pounds in buying one separately.Guaranteed for ten years which Brooks will honour even if you don't have a receipt as the manufacturing date is stamped on the underside of the saddle.Now looking forward to fitting it tomorrow and going out for a L O N G ride to start the process breaking it in.

I had been pondering purchasing a B-17 for years. As I get older and less "racey" I find I am liking these more traditional cycling products. I wanted to use a Carradice Saddle bag on my touring bike, this uses the cargo loops found on traditional saddles like Brooks (most modern saddles don't have them), so I thought I would go the whole hog and get the B-17 too.Firstly I love the look of this saddle, its like a work of art, and its traditional style looks great on my steel touring bike. The first thing you notice is how hard the leather is - scarily hard! This worried me. So far I have only done 2 fifty mile rides on this and both times my bum felt like I had done a century. However, when I remember to sit right back in the saddle it's very comfortable on my sit bones, it's just that during riding one tends to work forward onto the middle of the saddle, and this puts pressure on your perineum (thats where I get the discomfort). I imagine that over time the saddle will have more give, and I will get into the habit of pushing myself to the back. I have angled the nose up to try and stop myself moving forward but this hasn't helped much as it's quite a slippery surface at present.I am going to stick with this as I do like this saddle, and I love using saddlebags rather than racks and panniers.I have been cycling for at least 30 years and have never found a saddle that doesn't give me at least some discomfort through prolonged use.I think it's just a case of getting used to it, as with most saddles.

The Brooks B17 is a great saddle. It gets more comfortable with use, I think it is just about run in now after 100 or so miles in the saddle.However it was not the sweet deal I would have liked. The Brooks saddle is a British saddle but made in Germany post Brexit I was hit by a£45 customs charge. Not happy. It pushed the price far too high in my opinion. If you can find a British stockist, then it would be 5 out of 5.

I’m very picky and the quality is amazing. Right out of the box the seat is comfortable and will get better overtime with conditioning and use.It definitely gives me more power when I’m ridingFirst impressions highly recommended

I took the plunge and bought this seat after much debate. I've been riding cycles almost my entire life starting at around 5 or 6 I can't recall. As I got older, I got more into competitive cycling and had more than two dozen different types of seats. Each and everyone takes time to break and some are better than others. Some start out pretty comfortable but after a long ride, it really hurts. Some less if I wear padded shorts plus another layer of padding. But they pretty much all hurt nevertheless. Now here's the Brooks. Rather clunky looking yet very aesthetically pleasing to the eye saddles.First ride about 24 miles, trying to micro-adjust to my bike (Bike Friday Pocket Rocket) but keep sliding back and forth and I feel like I keep slipping forward. So I raise the nose just a bit but then it was too much. This isn't the saddle's fault but rather the seat post design. It feels rock hard even though I had applied the Proofhide overnight.On the second ride, more micro adjustment and lowering the post an mm or two. Still felt like sliding forward a bit so I adjusted the tilt again. But, here's the weird part. The seat still hasn't been broken in and it still feels very hard but I don't feel pain. And my bottom is saying "Hey this is very comfortable, keep riding faster!" My single-gear Bike Friday now feels like a completely different bike.. only much better!On my third ride, I noticed a couple of very important habits that I used to have during my years of cycling. First, I don't stand anymore when anticipating a bump or washboard on the road surface. Actually, I now just enjoy going over them and feeling those imperfections on the road (like vinyl vs. CD?). Also, that last few miles after a ride when you're tired, wow, that feeling of relaxing and just enjoying sitting and pedaling very joyfully!If it's this good and I now only put less than 70+ miles, I can't wait for several hundred or a thousand!Update:So far, I have put over 200 miles on the new Brooks B17 Special saddle. I have applied Proofhide after each ride as well as put Obenauf's Leather Conditioner on the bottom of the saddle. One I noticed was that as soon as I applied the oil underneath saddle using a small brush, the leather quickly became very supple and flexible. On the most recent ride, I immediately noticed how comfortable saddle began to feel even at the beginning of the ride. This did not happen at least towards the end of the ride which was about 20 miles. I also started to notice a slight arch forming on the seat which wasn't there before when it was new (compare the 1st pict which is most recent vs. last picture when it was new). I will continue to do the Proofhide/Obenauf's oil treatment and start to scale back some what down to every other month from hearon.Update (5/27):To date, I have logged over 500 miles on the B17. Without the slightest doubt, as what others have said about this saddle is undeniably true. That is, the more miles you put on, the comfortable it gets. Now I ride fairly briskly on my single gear Bike Friday road bike. Because of this, I think it's breaking-in a lot faster. I already started to see darker spots on the area where my body makes the most contact during the ride. Also I noticed that the saddle, although it's firmer than say Terry's gel saddle, it is way more comfortable yet because it has less give, I tend to put power down on the pedals more efficiently and feels less tired after the run. I also have the B17 with the cutout in the middle which is comfortable, but I think the B17 Special would be my first choice if I had to buy a new one.If you're on the fence about this saddle, don't, by far, this is the most comfortable saddle I've owned to date.Update-7/4:So far I must have put close to 800 miles on the B17 Special. As you can see from the last photo, saddle has begun to take some noticeable form according to physiques. Also notice the discoloration started to occur around the edges. However, the seat is now noticeably more comfortable. I can unanimously say, so far, I am loving this saddle, it makes my daily workout on the Bike Friday a shear heaven!

Une belle selle qui garde ce look ancien.Le cuir s'est fait à mon postérieur au bout de 300KM, disons qu'il faut faire un petit "rodage" avant de se sentir vraiment bien dessus.Je l'utilise principalement en Vélo Voyage/Bikepacking (rodage effectué a ce moment là) et ensuite sur mon Vélo Taff ou je n'es plus eu besoin de porter de cuissard car le cuir s'était bien fait à mon fessier. Ce-ci n'est que mon avis personnelle celà ne s'applique pas pour tout le monde car nous avons tous des morphologies différentes.Attention bien protéger la selle avec une housse de pluie pour ne pas que le cuir se déforme quand il pleut !Pour ma part je suis amplement Satisfait de cette selle, elle va me rester à vie.

Molto bella, come d’aspettativa

Fahre Jährlich bis zu 6000 km mit meinem Radl, ärgere mich das ich mich nicht schon eher für einen Brooks entschieden habe, mein aller werteste hätte es mir gedankt. Perfekte Verarbeitung, sitze super und angenehm drauf. Empfehle auf jeden Fall das original Lederfett von Brooks, und es nicht vergessen ab und zu den Sattel von beiden seiten gut ein zu fetten. Echtes kern sattel Leder! Einfahrzeit muss sein, bei mir waren es ca. 300 km, denke das hängt auch von der Person ab, bei manchen passt es gleich oder aber auch erst nach 1000 km, muss man halt ausprobieren. Für mich kommt kein anderer Sattel mehr in Frage. Habe noch eine Sattelstütze gefedert Parallelogramm dazu gekauft, der absolute Hammer, Sitzkomfort vom feinsten, der Rücken dankt es auf jeden Fall.