In all my years of riding I never broke in a BROOKS. I'd end up selling it at a loss and buying a regular saddle. And to think I grew up on hard plastic bmx seats. Come to think about it, maybe thats why I have a tender tush. BROOKS seats do look freaking awesome. They're like Dayton wire wheels, they can make a YUGO look cool. My current seating is a big Sella Royal Lagoon seat from Walmart.
I am still riding the original Brooks saddle on my 1973 Raleigh Competition. It was not ridden in the rain much. It is showing some cracks and wear.
The bike now lives in NYC and gets ridden about 50 miles a year at most. Now that I think about it, the saddle is the ONLY thing that hasn't been replaced besides the handlebars. That bike has crossed the state of Wisconsin (mostly) and most of the length of Florida in the early '70s.
At 68 years old-- well, I didn't go to NY last year, so let's say 67-- my wrists can handle about 40 minutes of riding at the most, but I still love riding it around Central Park, up and down Riverside Drive, and to friends' houses where I can take it up in the elevator and into their apartments. It has never been locked outside, ever, even for 5 minutes. That's why I still have it!
It lived in a friend's basement storage unit for about six years, unridden. I finally yielded to his request that I move it-- totally fair, he'd been more than kind, and I wanted to get it refurbished and ridden again. About six weeks after I retrieved it, thieves broke into the storage unit and stole a ton of stuff-- keyboards, basses, mixing boards. I was very lucky! I think that was in 2021 or so, but could have been 2018 or 2019. It now lives in my old roommate's apartment; by more dumb luck, one of the best Raleigh mechanics in the city has a shop that's about 50 steps from the front door.
Zero pain in the posterior. Go figure. I'm 6 foot 1 and have weighed between 142 and 152 pounds since I owned it.
