Brooks Saddle Review: B17 vs. Swift.

I suppose this blog is starting to read like a Brooks adoration site. Well to be honest they manufacture pretty good products, and I have been using their saddles for around five years now and I have found them to be outstanding in terms of comfort and durability.

B17 - And the U.K's pitiful snow.

My first Brooks saddle was a standard B17 model, which was purchased in advance of our John o’ Groats to Lands End trip in 2009. It served me well but is starting to look pretty beat up after a few crashes and my general disinclination to maintain anything properly. It’s seen a lot of abuse, and has been used for many miles in the rain, which is apparently isn’t recommended for Brooks saddles due to their leather construction (it came supplied with a rain cover but it looks stoopid). Anyway the B17 was starting to resemble something dredged up from the seabed so I decided to purchase a Swift before embarking on our tour last summer.

Everybody knows that you have to break in a Brooks saddle and that it can take some time before it contours to your backside like an armchair you haven’t left for three days. With my B17 this was a doddle however the Swift (15cm) proved to be a bit of an arse wrecker, this is because it’s a lot more slender in terms of width than the B17 (17.5cm) and the leather is therefore more taught, it also feels thicker. In comparison it took around three months to get the Swift broken in and it still wasn’t that comfortable at the beginning of the trip, which wasn’t ideal, however since then my backside has triumphed (with the help of proofide) and the Swift is as comfortable as it will ever be.

As I mentioned before the Swift is considerably thinner than the B17 which suits me as I generally prefer thinner race saddles, however riding a century on a Sunday is somewhat different to doing them everyday for a month and a few days into the trip I began to realize that I had made a mistake leaving my trusty old B17 at home, I’m not saying that the Swift isn’t comfortable, its better than 75% of the saddles I have ever tried, I would have just preferred the extra support offered by the B17 which is more suitable for touring, however I knew that before we left but decided to take a risk.

Swift.

In terms of fit and finish the Swift is far superior with its hand hammered copper rivets and chamfered sides. The rails on the B17 are looking rusty these days but I doubt that the same will happen to the swift, as the rails seem to be of better quality. Having said that the swift did cost twice as much so that’s to be expected.  The colours have aged nicely and the once honey coloured B17 is now a darker brown while the swift hasn’t changed much apart from a joker at work spilling some kind of chemical on it which has resulted in a strange effect on the leather.

I would recommend a Brooks to anybody looking for a comfortable saddle and not just for travelling long distances on. They are extremely durable and if you treat it better than I treat mine they could easily outlast you. For touring purposes the B17 is a must buy, It’s an absolute classic and is the standard choice for touring for a good reason, they are also one of Brook’s least expensive saddles which is always a bonus. While the Swift served me well on tour it would probably be more suitable for a vintage road bike or for riding shorter distances.

The Art of Camping

Camping is half the fun of the bike tour, if you're not camping you aren't doing it right. Before we left I had heard nothing but good things about French campsites and this turned out to be true (except they aren't all full of hot French girls). The majority of sites we stayed at had all the facilities conducive to a good camping experience, all had showers, not all had hot water. They all had washing up facilities for cookware and clothing.

The French have a 5 star rating for campsites much like hotels, the highest we stayed at was 4 star and this included a swimming pool a bar/restaurant and a euro disco playing crap music late into the night. All this comes at a price however, 30 euros in this case. We preferred the low budget 1 & 2 star sites without all the unnecessary extras, these could be found for as little as 5.50 euros for the both of us.  

French campsites generally have a good atmosphere about them, there is a real sense of camaraderie amongst campers. We also noticed a large amount of dutch holiday makers everywhere (I wonder if Holland is deserted during the summer months) they are great people and always keen to lend a mallet for hammering tent pegs into hard ground. 

Wild camping was an option but I would prefer to pay for the peace of mind of not being awoken by a French farmer with a shotgun. I'm sure you could get away with it as the majority of France is pretty desolate and rural, maybe next time.

5 Things I Couldn't Have Lived Without.

There's no excuse for eating badly on tour.

1. Tabasco sauce: Sounds weird but it makes the most mundane foodstuffs a whole lot more interesting, it's really good with pasta.

2. Wine: Wine is cheap in France and there is nothing better than a glass (or mug) of wine after a long day, Beer is a good alternative.

3. Coffee: I struggle to get out of bed at the best of times let alone at 6.30am everyday, coffee makes it a bit more bearable.

4. Inflatable Mattress: Don't risk a bad nights sleep, invest in a decent mattress.

5. Cycling Cap: Ok, so you may look like a dork but they prevent sweat getting in your eyes and offer protection from the sun.

10 Tips for Successful Touring.

1. DO IT! Leave as soon as possible, don’t put it off, book the time off work and go A.S.A.P. It could change your life, who knows!

2. Don’t plan too much, you can make the most detailed plans but you will have a much more enjoyable time if you ‘go with the flow’. Your bike may malfunction, you may take a wrong turn and end up miles from where you had planned to be. Remember, Europe as a whole is a civilised place and it’s unlikely you will starve or freeze, it’s an adventure after all!

3. Take a friend, and a good one at that. You will be spending every minute of every day with this person so make sure it’s somebody that you can tolerate and spend time with without wishing to wring their neck.

4. Bring a good knife with you, you will need it for preparing food, whittling a stick when you’re bored and stabbing your intolerable companion.

5. Cleanliness is next to godliness so make sure to shower and wash your clothes every night. You will be sweaty and gross after a long day in the saddle, so for the sake of your health and for those around you, stay clean. Campsites in Europe have all the necessary facilities for you to do this, however some showers are better than others.

6. Pack light. I cannot emphasise how easy it is to take with you a whole load of bonus stuff you will never need. On John O’ Groats to Land’s End we took a monstrous amount of junk (Jamie packed a large hardback book). For this trip we thought we had mastered the art of packing light, however we were wrong. By the halfway stage we managed to fill a bin liner with unnecessary items that were doomed to landfill. Whatever you take has to be lugged around with you and when you’re trying to ascend a Pyrenean climb the weight really makes a difference.

7. Water is necessary for human survival and you will need a lot of it. When cycling in 40 degree heat you tend to dry out pretty fast, so make sure you stock up with plenty of water. Before we left I attached two extra bottle cages to the front fork of my bike but took them off because i thought they looked stupid, I really regretted that. We ran out of water on three occasions, fortunately most French villages have drinking fountains.

8. The French don’t do much on Sundays, all the shops are shut so it is vital that you stock up the day before so you don’t end up huddled in a ball in you’re tent after a long days ride imagining how good a Big Mac would be right now.

9. Have faith in people, about 1000 miles into the journey we had both broken four spokes each (probably because of over packing) as a result our rear wheels resembled pringles and the bikes were virtually unridable. We spent hours in a Decathlon store trying to get the wheels fixed however the staff there managed to make the problem worse, to the extent that they gave us 20 euros to get them fixed elsewhere. It was at this point that we met Clive an English man with a French family, they put our bikes in their car found another bike shop, took us out for lunch and drove us to a campsite. We picked the bikes up the next day and continued on our journey but without them it could never have happened, cheers Clive!

10. Wear Sunscreen.

Honestly though, it’s hot out there kids, don’t get burned. A cycling cap also helps keep the sun out of your eyes and off your head.

11. This isn’t Spinal Tap.