Brooks Saddle

[oldrider]

I hauled an old 70ish Raleigh 3speed out of the shrubbery at the cemetary and found this beautiful Brooks saddle on it. Does anyone know if its older then the Raleigh it came on? I've never come across another Brooks saddle quite like this one, I'm guessing its much older then the bike was.

 

[Pinche]

Wow the leather is pretty shot as the holes in the middle cracked so much that is now looks like the Imperial models with the Perineum relief. lol. I'd say it's probably the same age as the bike as quite a few Raleighs came stock with Brooks saddles. I think that saddle was meant to stay where you found it as it's pretty far gone. Sitting out in the elements takes a severe toll on leather saddles as you can see with the large cracks and layers coming off around the edges. I had a saddle in that shape and after applying some saddle soap it made it worse and begin to tear more around the rivets and eventually tore completely off on the nose.

 

[jaydub]

Change the oil in your car or truck and drop it in the used oil for a week or too..Cant hurt it..LOL

 

[Wildcat]

Jergens skin lotion. Both sides. Lots of it.

Did you get the year of the bike off the hub?

 

[Unchained]

Jergens skin lotion. Both sides. Lots of it.

Did you get the year of the bike off the hub?

I don't know much about these, but that sounds like a really good idea. I think it's a nice, well worn in looking saddle, I would have been happy to find it anyday :wink: Did you keep the bike it came from?

PS, That's an unusual place to leave a perfectly good Raleigh... :mrgreen: Wonder what the story was.

 

[oldrider]

Thanks for the advice folks! I was thinking of taking saddle soap to it but hand lotion is on hand. As rough as it looks it is one of the most comfy saddles I've owned and well worth a little softening up. I still have the Raleigh it came off of but it fared much worse then the saddle did, the 3speed hub is solidly encased in rust and nothing really useable on the rest of it. The neighbor whose property adjoins the cemetary told me about it, said it had sat there at least 10 years.........strangest place I ever found a bike.

 

[Korporal]

Maybe use a gentler leather conditioner to keep the leather from ripping off the nose? The thinner oils tend to really soften leather. I like Limmer boot grease for boots, saddles, bags, etc. because it's thicker, and has less of a tendency to saturate leather. Your saddle may be way past that though. 10 years is a long time.

 

[ish]

I've resurrected some terrible looking leather with Feibing's Aussie leather conditioner. It's made for saddles. I've only used it on leather upholstery, but it has worked miracles.