During a time through which I weighed ~250 I had a couple of B68s fail on me. I sit bolt upright; it's actually like I weigh more, I think.
One failure may have been "my fault" in that I think I over-tensioned it; the nose bolt bent so much it became unusable and I had to replace it. By that time I had also ridden the saddle pretty wet several times and the leather was mis-shapen and rivets began popping out. I just quit using it and got another, realizing that simple things would have prevented the problems. And that the B68 was a remarkably comfortable saddle for me, when mine was between the short "break-in" and the long- term abuse era of its life. So I got another. And this one was nearly perfect. For about a 1000 miles. Then I realized that the frame in back was actually bending down at the sides (outside where the struts rose up from the rails to the frame; it had gone from being its (presumably) 210mm wide to being a measured 190mm wide. Finally, one side of the frame snapped. I concluded that B68s were actually too *wide* for me, and that perhaps the arrangement was such that I literally exerted force outside the load-bearing width that forced the frame to bend and then fail. I switched to a B17 and have never had a problem of any kind on it. They are plenty comfortable for me, though I admit a little more width might be even more so. I take my bending of the B68 and its short but super-comfortable life to mean that a 180mm-190mm saddle, with appropriately strong and positioned struts, would be about perfect. Brooks doesn't make one, as far as I know. Recently a (~150lb) friend got a B67. Watching him ride on it showed me how the springs operate in practice (barely moving under him, but still I expect the one-side-at-a-time rocking idea would be the same). I'll probably give one of those a try, as I'm thinking that the springs will mitigate the down-force problems by absorbing some shock. And as they barely moved at all under him, I have hope that they are stiff enough that they won't fail too quickly under me. I thought about getting a VO as a relatively inexpensive test of the spring idea. But the more I think about it, the less I think the VO is a good proxy for the Brooks. Too different at best. And I really liked those B68s during their prime. Also, I'm hopeful that the "Select" line of saddles, with their supposedly thicker firmer leather, might make for a better saddle for me in general. I don't expect to get 15,000 miles out of my current B17... 5,000, sure. I'm almost there now and it's doing very well but has required the odd re-tensioning... 10,000? maybe... Yours, Thomas Lynn Skean P.S. Oh, my friend had considered the B135 saddle, even though he is a lightweight, simply for the "steam-punk" look it would add to his black Bike Friday New World Tourist :) On May 30, 9:31 pm, dweendaddy <dweenda...@gmail.com> wrote: > I have a VO Model 8, sprung and similar in dimensions to the B67. I > have it on my cargo bike and ride upright. I am 210 pounds and I think > I am a bit big for it. I don't know if it is my size, but the two > rivets on the side of the nose failed. > I have a few questions: > 1. Is the B67 leather thicker or more substantial? I think it is 5mm > wider - would that make a difference? > 2. Did my weight cause the rivets to fail? > 3. Do I need to step up to one of the "heavy duty" (and heavy cost) > Brooks models like the B33? How would I attach such a thing to a > typical single rail seat post? > 4. Do I need to replace those rivets? If so, how? > > Thanks in advance for the advice. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
