In my humble opinion, there is nothing more important on a bicycle than the seat, both aesthetically and functionally. If my butt is sore, it’s going to be a short ride.  And a good looking leather saddle finsihes off the look of a bike. Until synthetic saddles entered the market in the mid 20th century, the majority of bike saddles were made of leather.

To me, the King of the leather bike saddles is always going to be a Brooks. Check out their gorgeous website here. Now, are these Brooks saddles pricey? Well, heck yes. But if you shop around, and don’t mind getting a used one, you can really bring the cost down.

This is the Brooks B-72 on my 1976 Schwinn Speedster single speed in Flamboyant Red. Vintage Schwinns have notoriously uncomfortable seats, so replacing them with a comfy Brooks is no real decison at all. I got this one on ebay for about $65.00 (with shipping). It was the classic case of a poor photo and description by the ebay seller.

This is a Brooks B-72 that resides on my office bike, the 1965 Schwinn Coppertone Traveler with the Bendix Kick-back Hub. This saddle came in brown, which looks good against the Coppertone. The beautiful Schwinn S-seat in Coppertone was removed and sits at my house. I also got this saddle on ebay for $60 or so: same deal, poor photo and description.

This is a Brooks B-66 that I use on my Bianchi Commuter. How about those springs! I got this on ebay for about $70, with the shipping.

Here is the Brooks B-17 that is on my 1973 Schwinn World Voyageur (sorry, Mr. Fuji). This is one of Brooks’ oldest designs. I finally got smart and placed a WTB ad on my local CL for this one, and a guy in Cowtown finally called me and gave it to me for $60.

Lovely:

I’m no expert on Brooks saddles. They come in many colors and configurations. You can see that I have tried out different models. My wife thinks that they look uncomfortable.

I think that they are beautiful, and my core group of bicycles are equipped with them.

Well, ok, not the Electrabike. They make a pretty comfy saddle, and I paid a lot of money for that bike and the durn saddle.

-Hubbard