The Brooks saddle company has undergone a reniassence in the last decade. Steven Green, from Brooks, talks with the host of “The Bike Show” in this podcast. Steven talks about sourcing leather, The Sturmey Archer crises, life with Selle Royal, making saddles, and the future of Brooks. I learned quite a bit.

Tags: history, interview

John, in the U.K., sent us a picture of this B.66 that he found on Ebay UK. We’ve seen the shaggy B.17 that was give to dealers for ‘09 but John tells us that this B.66 was an earlier dealer award from the Sturmey Archer era. The “7C9″ stamp on the underside indicates, I think, that the saddle was made in March ‘97.

Tags: shaggy

At the 1933 Olympia (London) Cycle Show Brooks displayed advanced technology in saddle construction. I found this article(PDF) in the Nov 24, 1933 edition of Cycling magazine. The Brooks piece was a part of a larger article about highlights of the show.

There are some interesting concepts here for Brooks wonks. I have never seen one of these saddles.

Interesting vocabulary:
“roadfarers” kitbags” “Champion Duralumin” “B.16 Champion” “castalumin formation” “automatic tensioning device” “fabric-cum-leather-cum-felt surfacing” “dome-headed rivet” “Plyflex” “constructional alteration”

Tags: duralum

“The Headbadge” website has posted an illustrated “Evolution of the Brooks Saddle Badges.”

“The Headbadge” is a “classic and vintage bicycle resource.” Thanks for posting the badge article

This Headbadge page is being discussed on bikeforums.net

Tags: brooks badges

The Mansfield Saddle Factory

Originally uploaded by recycletimber1

Before the revolutionary Unicanitor plastic saddle came along leather was the standard material for bike saddles. Most of the top brands came from Britain. Photographer recycletimber1 has sought out the homes of some of the many UK leather saddle manufacturers and posted pictures on his Flickr photostream. recycletimber also has a good collecton of vintage saddles on the same photostream.

Enough tire spray on wet roads and your leather saddle can become saturated and vulnerable. Usually we have fenders, or at least a bag under the saddle, for protection. Brooks used to offer these undersaddle shields, probably around the middle of the 20th century. (They’re made out of celluloid if that’s any help with dating them.)

Tags: water damage protection