Help with a Brooks B190

[hoop71]

So I love my bike but there are a couple things that are driving me crazy with my B190 saddle.

First off, it squeeks like CRAZY! It is very annoying! Any ideas to help cut down on the very noisy seat? After further investigation it looks like the noise comes from the leather saddle rubbing against the seat rails underneath. Ideas on how to eliminate/limit this noise?

Secondly, no matter how tight I tighten the 2 bolts which attach it to the seatpost and allow me to adjust the angle it ALWAYS loosens and tilts upright (the front of the seat points upright and the back slides down) after about 15 minutes. I am not a small guy but I am not large by any means (210 lbs). Any suggestions on how to prevent this? It is to the point that I carry a 13mm wrench with me on rides so I can fix and tighten the seat every time it tilts.

I really love the looks of the seat and it is VERY COMFORTABLE when the position is right but I'm almost at a point where I'm looking at other seats to replace it.

Cheers

 

[Dbubbleguy]

By seat rails do you mean the support that is riveted to the saddle in the back? I found a product at Richard's Sporting Goods called "Glovolium" marketed by Rawlins as a baseball glove treatment. It comes out as a clear liquid. My thought would be to squirt a line of this along the riveted support and let it seep between the leather and metal. Not that I've tried this but just an idea.

As to the loosening seat post bracket, try to find another bracket that has more aggressive binding slots. Or perhaps lay in a welded bead on the face plates where the binding slots are. Or once more, put a large star washer between the face plates of the bracket. Again, just a suggestion. Good Luck.

 

[Bob Gray]

Unfortunately, I think your seat clamp is probably shot. The way those things work is they have two sets of interlocking saw teeth. If you get it in place once and tighten it down they work good, but...if things loosen up and it slips, it will flatten out those teeth a little bit and if it's been doing that over and over chances are those teeth are pretty badly worn and your saddle will tilt upward even when things are relatively tight. I would see about getting a new clamp and then given your past luck with them I'd use lock washers and blue Loctite.

You can use these double rail Brooks saddles with more modern seatposts too. They make sandwich adapters to fit them, but you can also just attach your seatpost to the bottom rail. Been riding my B135 around like that for about 1000 miles now and it seems to work just fine.

I also notice very little noise with my B135, but I have it set high enough to give me a full leg extension, so I'm not riding around with as much weight supported on it as a lot of people probably are.

 

[user 135]

I just read about someone who had a squeak on the their saddle between the rails and the leather. He put some electrical tape as a buffer.

 

[twister]

Very nice looking bike.

 

[NicksGarage]

I have a B33 on my Porucho and you have to tighten the heck out of the seat clamp bolt and it still ends up moving when I hit a bump. I too carry a wrench with me when I ride.

One thing I did notice is that the washers that come with the seat are thin and deform easily. Because of the size, I have to use them but I put some extra thick washers under the nuts to keep them flatter.

I don't have a squeaking problem with mine. I did treat the top and bottom with the Proofide and put a lot on the bottom and got it into all the nooks and crannies as much as I could.

 

[hoop71]

Thanks for the replies.

I think I might try this adapter and get rid of the original 2 bolt clamp which does not seem to be working for me anyways.
https://www.wallbike.com/saddle-accessories/breeze-seat-sandwich

Also I will lube & treat my seat and see if that helps with the noisy rubbing.

Still open to any other suggestions though.

Cheers

 

[B607]

I don't know the size bolt on a Brooks but most US made seats came with a 1/4" bolt. I drill out the clamp and use a 3/8" grade 8 bolt with a jam nut and lock washer. Tighten it once and it will never move. Gary

 

[NicksGarage]

I don't know the size bolt on a Brooks but most US made seats came with a 1/4" bolt. I drill out the clamp and use a 3/8" grade 8 bolt with a jam nut and lock washer. Tighten it once and it will never move. Gary

That's what I figured was going to be my next step.

Sent from my HTC EVOLTE using Tapatalk 4 Pro.

 

[jerrykr]

1. Take the seat clamp with you to your LBS.
2. Buy a new one just like it - under $5 (price surprised the heck out of me)
3. Throw the old seat clamp away.
4. Install brand new one and enjoy a solid riding experience.
5. And, do NOT ask me how many times and for how long I too have struggled with old clamps.

 

[jerrykr]

Thanks for the replies.

I think I might try this adapter and get rid of the original 2 bolt clamp which does not seem to be working for me anyways.
https://www.wallbike.com/saddle-accessories/breeze-seat-sandwich

Cheers

For this you will also need the more modern seat post.

 

[hoop71]

1. Take the seat clamp with you to your LBS.
2. Buy a new one just like it - under $5 (price surprised the heck out of me)
3. Throw the old seat clamp away.
4. Install brand new one and enjoy a solid riding experience.
5. And, do NOT ask me how many times and for how long I too have struggled with old clamps.

Went to my LBS and mechanic said the same thing. He said a good quality one will not slip so that is the route I am going to take. Also going to put some lubricant on the underparts of the seat to see if that helps with the noise.

 

[chepe13]

I swear the Brooks clamps are garbage, Like some have said already, a 2-3$ one from your local BS should work better than the one you have slipping,

 

[NicksGarage]

I don't know about the B190 but on my B33 only the part that clamps to the seat post can be replaced with something generic.

 

[mikeeebikey]

So what is the problem?

 

[jwm]

I know this is an old thread, but my B33 seat clamp just failed as well. Same problem- seat tilts up. Will the single bolt adapters work on a B33? The seat sandwich, and others like it are all for 2 rail saddles. The B33 has 3 rails.

 

[bleedingfingers]

I think I will try Nicks garage method as the pawls on my clamp on my b33 are ok it's the triple seat rails that seam to slip .
I have a seat sandwich on my b135 and it works awesome but nothing available for The b33.
I have also put a small piece of tubing ( cissy bar ) inside the clamp .