The Brooks Swift arrived today.
Tried it out of the box and it was relatively comfortable. Little break in would be needed.
JRA gave me the confidence needed to just soak the new saddle. 20 minutes in a bucket of tepid water.
Put it on the bike and it was nice and pliable and instantly conformed to my sit bones.
Rode for 5 miles and came home. The sides had splayed out substantially; the leather gets very pliable when wet and so it had also stretched lengthwise. I tightened the saddle a few turns with the supplied wrench.
I now understand better JRA's observation: if this sort of saddle is repeatedly ridden in the rain, it will keep on stretching and stretching, and eventually there will be no more take-up adjustment remaining.
On the other hand, the Swift came with a form fitting, black nylon rain cover. I can easily carry that in the little top tube bag on my CCS.
As I write this posting the saddle that I soaked an hour ago is drying out in the blast of an electric fan with some ace-bandage type elastic material temporarily stretched around the waist of the saddle in order to pull the sides in again nice and narrow till it dries out sufficiently to hold the shape again.
When the saddle dries sufficiently (it is drying fast in the fan's blast) the shape will be locked in and I will remove the temporary bandage.
I am very pleased. I have had two prior Brooks saddles and both were torture to ride on.
The B66 I owned ten years ago was just rock hard and much too wide for me, besides.
My bad that I did not know to use water to soften the leather for instant conformation.
The most recent Brooks, bought a year ago, was a C15 Cambium Carved Saddle Black. It is billed as needing no break in. But I found its rubber base to be so over-vulcanized that it might as well have been hard plastic. I kept the saddle to see if I could break myself in to it, instead of the other way around. Not possible. I could only stand that saddle if I wore padded shorts. I don't wear padded shorts, though, just street clothes.
(edit: the saddle is sufficiently dry now and the temporary bandage is therefore removed for photography before it gets too dark here)
Conclusion:
The Swift fits. It is for sure the saddle I am going to keep for a very long time to come.
(You may be able to see during this walkaround the depressions, how the leather has already conformed to my shape.)
If it works at the factory level to help form the saddle as seen here starting at 2:53 it's good enough for me.
how brooks saddles are made
Applying Proofhide helps to maintain the leather after it is wetted, formed and dried but in actuality does little to help it conform to your sit bones. I've never seen evidence of Brooks pushing the theory that it will help to accelerate the personal forming of the saddle. It is more of an old wives tail that is just to suck people into the same long drawn out experience they went through using it exclusively, the old misery loves company, when it probably was more that they rode the bike in the rain a few times that finally had the desired result....
As I said before they can be gotten too wet even with a regular application of proof hide and will start to sag which makes you tighten the nut under the nose of the saddle to get it back in shape. There is a good amount of adjustment there but it will eventually come to an end.
Oh and the same saddle I had is featured in the video as one of the few shown at the beginning that did't have springs. I always knew it as the Pro model with Ti rails.
Sure hope that isn’t 1,000 miles of “breaking in” down the drain...
