Brooks England B17 Special, Leather Bike Saddle with Hand-Hammered Copper Rivets

Do not buy this product. After just one year of use the saddle rail cracked. Multiple attempts to contact brooks has failed. Brooks quality is on the decline. I won't buy from them directly ever again.

I truly don’t get it. I’ve ridden bicycles my entire life and have had dozens of seats. This thing is just horrible. I have no idea how the manufacturers got so many positive reviews. Literally the only thing worse would be just sitting on the seat post without a seat. And I know, I know… you’re supposed to ride a few hundred miles to “break it in”. Honestly, who wants to ride that far in pure misery just to get to a level of comfort you can buy with any good quality normal seat? Make up your own mind, but be warned.

The description said this was supposed to be a titanium rail saddle with copper rivets but what arrived was a chromoly rails without copper rivits. Also it did not come with the proper packaging. Totally a fraud. DO NOT BUY!!!

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!

I've been wanting a B17 saddle for my bike ever since my wife got a Flyer S for herself. The B17 and Flyer share the same leather top, but the Flyer has springs while the B17 does not. There's no denying the comfort this saddle provides, especially after breaking it in for a few miles. The B17 Special I got happens to look gorgeous, too, with polished copper plating on the rails and copper hand-hammered rivets. The weight isn't terribly impressive, but it's not objectionable either. The price might be a bit steep for some, but this is actually a mid-range product from Brooks. High quality saddles cost a lot of money, no matter what manufacturer makes it. For me, the money was well worth it. My only real gripe is with the lack of fore/aft adjustment. There's less than an inch of adjustment available on the rails. This is surprisingly little, and can make fitting the cockpit challenging and expensive. Instead of just sliding the saddle front/back to get the proper fit, you'll need to buy a setback seatpost, or a longer stem, etc. If it weren't for that one issue, I'd probably give this product the full 5 stars.

Rode bike form two months and when finished seat screw slipped out not able to repair myself. Leather stretched on ride and screw seemed to come out. I had not tried to adjust it on the ride.

This is an exceptional bike seat at an incredible price - about half the new price. My other B17 Special was put out of commission by a tensioner bolt breaking. I tried a couple of other seats but not worked and some were just overall painful after 20 miles. I was searching for a used seat while my other seat got repaired and this popped up. It arrived quickly and even though it was listed as used it came in the original Brooks packaging attached to the box interior as original. I could see no marks on the rails and nothing to show it had been ridden. I compared to my older saddle and they were exact copies in every way. In looking closer the leather had several defects that were not up to Brooks standards -see photos. I suspect this is a "second" and not "used". Brooks seats are light weight, strong, long lasting and just comfortable. My original rooks lasted 50K+ miles. Even with the slight creases in the leather If it lasts 20K miles I'll be happy at this price and enjoy every mile.

best seat ever-cant say enough about it

Confortável desde o primeiro dia e só pode ficar melhor, à medida que a pele suavizar e adaptar a forma ao meu corpo. O cheiro da pele (ainda mais com a aplicação de Proofide), excelente qualidade de construção e design, fazem deste um selim intemporal

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.

Love the Brooks leather saddle 🤩

Perfecto desde el primer día. Para mi, mucho mejor que el Fizik Ganma XM Aliante que tenía anteriormente. Yo peso 100 kilos y soy un tio grande, se adapta perfectamente. Al ser de piel, permite los cambios de postura y los movimientos en el sillin de forma suave y muy agradable. Trae hasta una funda para resguardarlo de la lluvia que no trae el B17 standar. Yo ya no cambio del Brooks B17 en ninguna de mis bicis.