3rd broken Brooks Team Pro

[bikinchris]

Today, I broke my third Brooks Team Pro saddle. Both rails broke at the same time. Weird. I chose Brooks because I find them comfortable. I thought they would be tougher than this. I put an older saddle back on to ride tomorrow. It has a cracked rear bracket that squeaks terribly.

[ColonelJLloyd]

Hmm. One person breaking three Pros. . .

Do you have a pic of your typical setup? I would be curious to see where your rails are clamped.

[Polyglot]

Steel or titanium? How much do you weigh and where do you ride?

[bikinchris]

The first saddle I broke was on our tandem with an old style SR seatpost. It was clamped forward in the rails. This bike has a Thomson straight seat post on my touring bike and the saddle is far back on the rails.

[bikinchris]

Steel or titanium? How much do you weigh and where do you ride?

All steel. I do weight a lot. About 270 nowadays. I ride flat land and nowhere near as fast as I used to.

[ColonelJLloyd]

Where did they break? All in the same spot?

Sucks, but seems like they're not up for the task you're giving them. Maybe try a steel railed Berthoud.

[regularguy412]

The first saddle I broke was on our tandem with an old style SR seatpost. It was clamped forward in the rails. This bike has a Thomson straight seat post on my touring bike and the saddle is far back on the rails.

IMO ^^ This.

Get a post for your rides that allows for the saddle to be more centrally clamped.

I used to be a lightweight, but 'I ain't no more'. And though it may happen tomorrow, I've never broken a saddle. That would include saddles with steel rails, hollow cro-mo rails, solid aluminum rails and solid magnesium rails. I've never used any saddle with TI or Carbon rails.

I would also wonder if, when you are crossing rail road tracks or really rough pavement, do you balance the pedals and 'lighten' the weight on the saddle? I'll sometimes get completely up off the saddle in certain circumstances, just so that the saddle and rear wheel don't get the brunt of a potentially solid impact. At speed, somethin's gotta give.

Mike in AR:beer:

[bikinchris]

No, I'm very light on the saddle. I always unweighted for big bumps and float well over unexpected bumps. I can ride pretty light wheels if I want, without fear of wheel damage.

The Berthoud idea might make sense. Time to give a different saddle a try, maybe.

[dddd]

Thompson does make an offset post that would allow some repositioning of the clamp on the rails. I recommend sticking with Thompson as it is a very strong seatpost.

I weigh under 150 and I've bent saddle rails that were slid all the way back. Sounds like the Brooks rails are hardened more and thus behaving in a more brittle fashion, and safe to say that the saddle I bent was not very high quality.

[marciero]

I had problems with Brooks but for me it the seatposts that failed first- one of the lower rear lobes. This happened on two Campy chorus seatposts. I also had the saddle slid all the way back. Agree about getting a setback seatpost. VO makes a cheap one that works well. Is heavy but better quality than some of their other parts. Nicer options i imagine. Paul also makes one.

Edit: Correction: It was a Fizik saddle the second time, not a Brooks. But two Campy chorus post failures.

[mtechnica]

Buy a saddle designed within the last 100 years and maybe it will work better.

[palincss]

Buy a better designed seat post and maybe it will work better.

[93KgBike]

When I used to weigh 270lbs, 6 years ago, I actually weighed 283lbs. I found this out in the ER after injuring myself while running.

Your saddles may be giving you a warning about the kind of stress your body is under.

[Drmojo]

One Pro
Two B 17s
all in different spots- rails, nose, clamp
All with various seatposts
Only "fixed" varable was riding fixed gear.
Brooks always sent me replacements gratis.
Now I am a Velo Orange guy
over 10 k miles on 3 of their saddles
Have yet to bust one.
I have a Rivet now- too soon to tell..
But my pal makes them so I have fingers crossed

[MikeD]

Does the saddle have chromed rails? That was a problem in the past due to hydrogen embrittlement from the plating process. Dumb idea to chrome a saddle rail.

[donevwil]

IMO ^^ This.

Get a post for your rides that allows for the saddle to be more centrally clamped.

I used to be a lightweight, but 'I ain't no more'. And though it may happen tomorrow, I've never broken a saddle. That would include saddles with steel rails, hollow cro-mo rails, solid aluminum rails and solid magnesium rails. I've never used any saddle with TI or Carbon rails.

I would also wonder if, when you are crossing rail road tracks or really rough pavement, do you balance the pedals and 'lighten' the weight on the saddle? I'll sometimes get completely up off the saddle in certain circumstances, just so that the saddle and rear wheel don't get the brunt of a potentially solid impact. At speed, somethin's gotta give.

Mike in AR:beer:


I agree with this, get a post with more, or sufficient, setback.

I've been between 220-245 the last decade and have broken quite a few rails, each example was with the saddle slammed to the rear. One day while across the hall e-RICHIE posted about always striving to get the clamp directly below the center of pressure on the saddle which seems pretty obvious in retrospect. That turned out to be a lot further rearward than I'd realized and required some posts with generous setback, but I haven't broken a rail since (some Ti).

Also, although Brooks don't have the longest rails, the steel used in their saddles never struck me as being a particularly high grade.

[bikinchris]

Does the saddle have chromed rails? That was a problem in the past due to hydrogen embrittlement from the plating process. Dumb idea to chrome a saddle rail.

Yes, the rails are chromed. Interesting viewpoint.

[jr59]

I too have had a couple of the chromed Brooks snap into parts. I was told by Bill at wall-bike that it was a problem with the chrome rails, for big guys

[weisan]

Chris pal, don't mind me saying this... but crazy is keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. I think 3 broken saddles of the same type should tell you something.

I think you might look into some of the WTB saddle offerings, for example the Pure V.

[ColonelJLloyd]

Chris pal, don't mind me saying this... but crazy is keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. I think 3 broken saddles of the same type should tell you something.

I'm sure he's learned his lesson now. I like to think he was in the ol' "third time's a charm" line of thinking. ;)

[MikeD]

I would try to get Brooks to warranty the broken saddles. Either they should learn how to chrome plate without causing hydrogen embrittlement or they should stop offering chrome plated rails. As long as this company has been in business, one would wonder why they continue to have these problems. All this assumes that hydrogen embrittlement is the cause of the problem. Regardless, a solid steel rail should not break, considering all the other saddles out there that have much lighter rails that don't break.

[bikinchris]

I'm sure he's learned his lesson now. I like to think he was in the ol' "third time's a charm" line of thinking. ;)

It has happened over 25 years.

[ColonelJLloyd]

It has happened over 25 years.

I gathered as much. It was an attempt at levity.

[Bwana]

Over torquing the clamp bolts? :confused:

[benb]

Brooks doesn't seem to list a weight limit do they?

Everything has a weight limit whether the manufacturer says so or not. With such a traditional product maybe no one ever figured out what the limit is supposed to be.

A plating process that weakens it doesn't sound like the kind of thing a company with solid/modern engineering would put into production.:rolleyes: