Unquestionable British Tradition.
My first experience with Brooks saddles came after receiving the Bridgestone Owner's Bunch (BOB) Gazette from Grant Petersen, former Bridgestone Cycles product and marketing manager. The U.S. division was shutting down in the fall of 1994, and the BOB Gazette was an effort to keep cash flowing and sell inventory, which was successful. Petersen always made a compelling argument for things in print, including bicycles, parts and clothing, which went against conventional wisdom, like leather saddles made by hand in England.
Then, gel-filled saddles were becoming popular, narrow, and light. A leather saddle, while serviceable, customizable and useful for attaching saddle bags, was deemed outdated, heavy and uncomfortable by the general bike media, product managers, and skinny racers. It seemed, for a short period, that the death of the leather saddle was imminent.
When Petersen launched Rivendell Bicycle Works in late 1994, he was free of corporate oversight and over-the-shoulder management. He decided to hitch his wagon to lugged steel bicycle frames, steel forks with crowns, waxed cotton bags, beeswax (!), wool clothing, and handmade leather saddles.
His choice to make the frames? Waterford Precision Cycles, the old Schwinn Paramount factory in southeastern Wisconsin, run by Richard Schwinn and Marc Muller. His choice of a middle-man to help out with production and be his eyes and ears at the factory? Me, a then 30-year-old bicycle nut living in Milwaukee. His choice to make the leather saddles? Brooks of England, a company in the saddle making business since 1866.
I enjoyed the complete Rivendell package: my first Rivendell bike was burnt orange with a mix of Simplex, SunTour, Panaracer, Sugino, Nitto, Mavic and Bullseye parts, topped off with a Brooks. The bike harkened back to the era of Jacques Anquetil, Louison Bobet and Hugo Koblet, with cotton bar tape and bar-end shifters.
The Brooks company fell on hard times in the late 1990s, and despite Rivendell selling upwards of 300 - 500 saddles annually, it took a buy-out by the Italian-based Selle Royal company to keep leather saddles made by hand in England. Thankfully, the new owners saw the importance of keeping the same machinery and same hands busy, and the recent hand-built bicycle movement and tweed phase have returned Brooks saddles to the forefront.
Today, as I write this in my northern California workshop, I glance over my right shoulder to see three lugged, steel bicycles and one tandem adorned with Brooks B-17 saddles, all in black, and all enjoyed daily.
The latest Cycling Plus magazine arrived early in the week, with a two-page advertisement that caught my eye and prompted this blog. It's the photo at the top, and may it inspire you as it has my family and me, ever since 1994. Here's a making-of video from the advertisement:
