Why Buy a Brooks?

I once talked to a sales rep for the Highway 2 corporation, the distribution company who bike shops get their Brooks saddles from, and he told me the secret story of Brooks Saddles and why they've become so popular in the last 10 years or so.

It used to be that back in the day everybody used a leather saddle. There was no other choice really. Then in the seventies high-quality, inexpensive and lightweight plastic and composite saddles started showing up and within a couple decades the leather saddle was all but forgotten. 

Fast forward to the late nineties. Some Italian businessmen are sitting in a cafe drinking espresso and reminiscing about their old racing bikes. Somehow the discussion moves to saddles and Brooks gets brought up. Brooks was the best -no discussion. They used only the best part of the cow hide, the leather along the spine, and could only make three or so saddles out of a cow where a lesser company might make ten, but these three saddles would be exceptional. There are, in fact,  Brooks saddles aged over a half century still being ridden, passed on from father to son; I've ridden one myself and it was very comfortable.

"Whatever happened to Brooks?" "Lets take a trip to England and find out!" So the Italian businessmen looked up the address and booked a flight. 

They hired a car and drove out into the country where the world headquarters was located. Following the directions of local townsfolk, they ended up at an old farm outside Smethwick, salt-and-peppered with moss plagued outcrop buildings missing shingles or doors. An old man greeted the Italians and confirmed that, yes, they were at the Brooks world headquarters and factory. The old man took them on a tour of the one and only building still in use, a small barn. It was dark and damp with mountains of used cow hide pilled up -one problem with the brooks fabrication method is that it makes a lot of waste. They were led to a small windowless room in the back, lit by a single bare lightbulb and in this room sat a single elderly craftsman, hunched over and ancient jig, stretching the leather of a new saddle. 

Well, this just broke the Italians' hearts and they resolved to buy Brooks and restore it to its former glory. Over the next decade they pumped big money into Brooks, making a website, arranging distributers (many of whom shared the Italians' nostalgia), and creating a brilliant advertising campaign that focused on Brook's heritage and its 'classic' appeal -heightened when mixed with tweed, wool and houndstooth,  which were also making a comeback. 

Interesting side note: the art of leather manipulation, an obsolete skill for a generation, had been nearly forgotten in the first world, with just a handful of knowledgeable retirees in no shape to start production on a commercial scale. So the businessmen went to China where the leather craft is still a hot profession and hired some chinese people to make the saddles -though whether they relocated to England or did it in China I don't know. 

Onto why you should buy a Brooks: comfort. Leather breaks in, over a few hundred hours it conforms to your butt and riding style to make the perfect fit. The saddles with the copper rivets tend to be more comfortable and last longer because they spread the stretch of the leather more evenly. 

But if Brooks are so great? Why did they -and every other leather saddle company- fall off? 

1. Maintenance is a pain in the ass, especially if you ride in the rain or snow. To keep the leather from cracking or losing its shape you have to rub leather conditioner on it whenever it gets wet or every hundred hours of riding. Then if you try to go on a ride before the conditioner dries it will stain your shorts (that's why bike shorts are traditionally black)

2. They're heavy. This isn't a big deal for most people, but racers are notoriously weight weenies and an extra half-pound three feet above the bike's ideal center of gravity (the bottom bracket) makes for awkward out-of-saddle efforts. 

3. Compared to most plastic saddles, Brooks are expensive. The basic B-17 saddle costs around $100 and if you want the top-of-the-line Swift with titanium rails you're looking at $350. Although, there are plenty of $300 plastic and composite saddles out there too.

4. Some people have ethical issues with leather saddles, especially since Brooks uses a lot of cow to produce only a few saddles. However, Brooks is diversifying its product line to make use of the spare leather. But if you don't support the cow-killing industry Brooks is not for you. 

I've had a Brooks B-17 Special for a couple years on my town bike and put about 1,000 miles on it so far. It's the most comfortable saddle I've ever had and I'd recommend it to anyone for for touring and long rides, but it's a little overkill for the city, kind of a theft liability too. Also, I've tried the B-17 on my race bike and found it's not so great. A broken-in B-17 tends to make you stay in one spot, but for racing I want to move around. The Swift and Swallow models probably take care of that. 

Don't take my word though. Give Brooks a long ride sometime and you just might join the cult.