Author Topic: Brooks spring nut  (Read 7192 times)

JimK

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Brooks spring nut
« on: November 15, 2017, 12:44:31 am »
A nut fell off my Brooks saddle, as I reported in a ride report. There is talk of the proper size being 9/32 and probably Whitworth threading. I got the Brooks replacement... seems like 9/32 is the diameter of the threading on the bolt. The nut itself is 1/2 inch, i.e. it takes a 1/2 inch wrench.

It was tricky to get the nut started. But an open end wrench had no problem getting in there to snug it down. I did put some thread lock in there!


Danneaux

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Re: Brooks spring nut
« Reply #1 on: November 15, 2017, 01:20:21 am »
Yay! Sure glad you're sorted now, Jim. Good job!

I was looking through my tools today and found my Whitworth thread gauge...on the other side of my metric (Metrische) thread gauge, which I use almost daily! I knew it was here somewhere, but it has been long enough since I used the Whitworth portion I'd forgotten.  ::)  I wish I was a bit closer to you so I could have checked the size for you directly. Got this about 35 years ago when I needed to repair my late father's 1938 Hercules bicycle (now mine).

All the best,

Dan.
« Last Edit: November 15, 2017, 03:20:36 am by Danneaux »

Andre Jute

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Re: Brooks spring nut
« Reply #2 on: November 15, 2017, 02:43:12 am »
That's not all, Dan. I'm buying some very fine palm chisels from Pheil in Switzerland to make a lino or woodblock carving to print a few Christmas cards in a limited edition. I too was sorting tools, checking whether any of my oil- and Japanese water-stones are the right grit and size (all too bloody big -- and a properly shaped Arkansas slipstone is expensive this side of the water). Lying in a toolbox I looked into was a huge spanner (wrench to Americans) stamped on each side in two gauges, Whitworth and BSC. Hey, hey, hey, didn't someone mention British Standard Cycle the other day? I appears that they're compatible, except that x measure in Whitworth is equivalent to y measure in BSC. And I already reported that, looking through my large spanners with the metric-head Rohloff sprocket socket in hand, I found that a Whitworth spanner was a tight fit.

The threads may be different for a reason (at a time when it was understood that a reason to be good was rational, not your feelings), but the nuts' across-the-flats distance is the same for economy in buying tools. Looks like those old guys weren't so wayward after all.
« Last Edit: November 15, 2017, 06:54:48 pm by Andre Jute »

JimK

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Re: Brooks spring nut
« Reply #3 on: November 15, 2017, 02:45:10 am »
I ended up getting a bolt + nut combo, because that's what I could find. Studying the bolt, looks like 20 threads per inch. It'd really pass for 1/4 inch outer diameter. That seems to match Whitworth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Standard_Whitworth

jags

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Re: Brooks spring nut
« Reply #4 on: November 15, 2017, 11:28:22 am »
better off buying buying a modern saddle like the Fizik alanti carbon   probable best saddle ever made .those brooks are to heavy need to much looking after and yeah they fall apart get them out buy a decent saddle and be done with it.


anto.

John Saxby

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Re: Brooks spring nut
« Reply #5 on: November 15, 2017, 04:48:44 pm »
Probably all true, Anto.

On the other hand, look at the enjoyment we've all had as we've fussed over the alleyways and byways of the missing nut on Jim's saddle. Not sure that Brooks planned that sort of thing when they designed their saddle back in the day just after the Boyne, but I like to think they're OK with it.

jags

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Re: Brooks spring nut
« Reply #6 on: November 15, 2017, 06:56:11 pm »
 ;D well can't argue with that John ;)



anto.

mickeg

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Re: Brooks spring nut
« Reply #7 on: November 15, 2017, 08:13:17 pm »
I do not loan my Whitworth wrenches to anyone, they might not come back.

Danneaux

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Re: Brooks spring nut
« Reply #8 on: November 15, 2017, 08:38:07 pm »
Quote
I do not loan my Whitworth wrenches to anyone, they might not come back.
Ditto for me with all my tools. The few loaned tools that did manage to find their way home were no longer worth owning. Lesson learned.

All the best,

Dan.

martinf

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Re: Brooks spring nut
« Reply #9 on: November 15, 2017, 09:29:41 pm »
those brooks are to heavy need to much looking after and yeah they fall apart get them out buy a decent saddle and be done with it.

They can start falling apart, but one of mine was bought 40 years ago, another 30 years ago, between them about 110,000 kms and still usable. Not had that kind of service from a lightweight saddle.

jags

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Re: Brooks spring nut
« Reply #10 on: November 15, 2017, 10:09:41 pm »
just joking martin great saddle for sure the fizik ahh i mean the brooks. ;)

John Saxby

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Re: Brooks spring nut
« Reply #11 on: November 15, 2017, 10:10:27 pm »
Quote
I do not loan my Whitworth wrenches to anyone

Yep, the Whitworth sockets I bought from Shantz' DomiRacer/Accessory Mart in Cincinnati for the restoration of my Ajay were the best I ever had.  I've kept them, even after selling the bike.  Even though the sockets no longer fit any nuts or bolt heads in my workshop, I regularly use the ratchet because it's so good.

Andre Jute

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Re: Brooks spring nut
« Reply #12 on: November 15, 2017, 10:25:27 pm »
those brooks are to heavy need to much looking after and yeah they fall apart get them out buy a decent saddle and be done with it.

They can start falling apart, but one of mine was bought 40 years ago, another 30 years ago, between them about 110,000 kms and still usable. Not had that kind of service from a lightweight saddle.

I have a plastic saddle about a quarter century old and still in perfect condition. It's in such perfect condition because I rode it almost as far as the gate at the end of our drive before I decided it was an instrument of torture, never mind that it said things like "Hygienic" and "Ergonomic" and "Sports" on the thing itself and in the literature. I pushed the bike back to the house and threw off the plastic saddle and fitted a Brooks, and my bum and back were happy.

Photo of the wretched thing at http://coolmainpress.com/Trek%20article%20illustrations%20Trimmed%20wide/Trek%20L700%20Smover%20as%20delivered.jpg

Come to think of it, I have another plastic "anatomical" saddle that's a decade old and in perfect condition because I rode it less than a kilometer before deciding "anatomical" is another euphemism for "death to Andre's coccyx", and fitting a Brooks.

But Jags is right. There is a kind of seat (not a saddle) that is superior to a Brooks for upright riders. The brand name on mine is Cheeko 90, and it looks like those abbreviated bucket seats you used to see on tractors, except upholstered. Long since off the market, as far as I know. Unfortunately the good-looking upholstery lasted a year or two or so, then got tatty, which a Brooks never does, no matter how badly worn it becomes.
« Last Edit: November 15, 2017, 10:32:28 pm by Andre Jute »

JimK

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Re: Brooks spring nut
« Reply #13 on: November 15, 2017, 10:29:51 pm »
I took my new saddle nut on a test ride: https://www.strava.com/activities/1276993425 (since I put technical talk in the ride thread, I thought I would balance things out here!)

Here is a crazy convergence: Brooks has a research facility in Ogden, Utah! That is only a slight stretch of the facts: http://www.bicycleretailer.com/north-america/2016/01/19/selle-royal-hires-schiers-head-r-d-us. So I thought I should investigate:



I saw absolutely no sign anywhere identifying this building, but it has to be the right place. Next door is Enve rims, also without a sign, but the trailer is a big clue:



As I arrived there, a couple lycra-clad folks were pulling out on a couple of very zippy bikes. Lunch break maybe or who knows. They must do test rides on newly designed rims at least occasionally!

These bike businesses are located on what was a major stockyard: http://utahrails.net/industries/livestock-ogden.php. The main exchange building is still standing nearby:



It's a pretty complicated tangle of rivers, roads, tracks, paths, etc. there:



The Weber River flooded last spring and that underpass got really clogged with debris, including some big trees. Somebody must have worked hard, but they cleared the path:


 
The nut worked just fine on this test ride!

John Saxby

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Re: Brooks spring nut
« Reply #14 on: November 16, 2017, 02:12:05 pm »
Wild stuff, Jim.  That looks like a perfect setting for scenes in a Cormac McCarthy post-apocalyptic Western, in which there's be no motor vehicles, of course, only things like Thorn bikes with Rohloffs (and probably Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires  :()

Brooks under the radar, eh? And why not?--who'd ever think of spying on product development by a saddle-maker in the heartland of a fading theocracy?