So as not to hog John's handlebar and setup thread for his new bike with perhaps irrelevant enthusiasms, I've made this new thread for this:
Another part of the [sitting more upright] formula is a wide springy seat. I've got a Brooks B66 on that bike. They make saddles that are even springier.
Yes. The absolutely best bicycle component investment I've ever made was a B73 saddle that was on sale at SJS for £50, years and years ago. It's the only component that has come over with me to all the bikes I've bought since. The irony is, I bought that saddle only because it wasn't very expensive on the sale, merely to see what everyone else was going on about, Brooks this and Brooks that. Now you'll take it away from me only by unclenching it from my cold dead... Well, I'll leave the anatomical imagination there.
The B73 has triple helical coils, one at each corner of the saddle, plus four flat springs in the double-rail mounting. The coils and the thick leather still feel ultra-stiff but the ride is very comfortable indeed. I also have matching grips, edge-on leather rings assembled on tiny bicycle spokes (I kid you not..) between cast ali end pieces, the whole thing a surefire icebreaker with cyclists met on the road.
My B73 and the grips were honey-colored but I immediately made them a custom mid-brown by application of neatsfoot oil.
Here is the black B73 that SJS currently has on sale for £95:
Here's a link to the saddle and spare parts for it:
Frankly, I don't see the need to stock up on spare parts as my saddle, except for a few scuffs from an adventurous life on narrow ways and rough roads, is in virtually as-new condition as regards the hardware, and the leather is still smart.
If you're tempted to buy the B73 SJS is offering, there is one extra you should buy, which is this overpriced piece:
on the same page. It absolves you from using Brooks' wretchedly crude old style saddle mounting clip, and finding a candle-head seatpost to fit it to, and permits you to use a standard micro-adjustable seatpost. It is absolutely essential to have one of these if you own a twin-rail Brooks saddle and are at all particular about your saddle position. (I am. My back doesn't work unless saddle and handlebars and pedals are arranged to within 1mm in all directions.) My twin-rail adaptor is nylon, a gift from Julian (Julk), and a real lifesaver as at that time there was absolutely nothing available in the stores to do the job.
Brooks actually makes -- or made -- two bigger saddles than the B73, the B135, for really big people, and the B190, for sumo wrestlers only. The only B135 I ever saw had pebble finish to the leather, presumably as a location aid so the owner wouldn't slip off his throne. When I was a boy, the B190 was a standard fitting on "Colonial" Raleighs, the extra-heavy-duty jobs that municipalities in small towns provided to its health inspectors and meter readers; both bike and saddle were indestructible: there were boys riding riding to school on their fathers' discarded bikes, which were good for a generation or two still. When I bought my Utopia Kranich ten years ago, Utopia still listed the B190 as an option for German baumeisters.
There is also a downspecced, racier version of the B73, called the B72, which doesn't have the helical coils at each corner but is a hammock additionally sprung only by the double rails being curled into round springs halfway along their run. It looks clever, and may well be a comfort revelation to those accustomed to B17 Brooks saddles. SJS describes it as a "unisex" saddle.
If you're tempted, don't forget the twin rail adaptor further down that page. It's essential to your sanity.
