Fitting Brooks saddle tension bolt

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m_b_stephens

Fitting Brooks saddle tension bolt

Post by m_b_stephens »

I have a couple of Brooks B17 saddles with broken tension bolts. Having got replacements I am now struggling to fit them. Does anyone have any suggestions about how this can be done? Does it need a special tool or rig?

The tension bolt fits between the nose and the cradle. It is not threaded along its full length and when fitted in position by its bracket to the cradle the end over-shoots the nose by enough to stop it slipping into place.

I have been trying to force it into place but I'm worried that I will lose a finger when the whole thing snaps into place.

Help please?
thirdcrank

Re:Fitting Brooks saddle tension bolt

Post by thirdcrank »

I am sorry that nobody has been able to help but I do not like to see this just disappear off the edge. I checked their www which seems glitzy but unhelpful. The line, 'we do not give advice so go to an expert' is an absolute cop out. I expect that in many bike shops you would be greeted by sneers if you tried to buy a Brooks saddle, never mind seek out a skilled craftsman to fix one. I note that nobody from the trade has popped up to offer.

In the absence of a specific tool to do the job safely, it is hard to imagine that it is anything other than force and hoping for the best.

Can I suggest that you try contacting Brooks and ask them for a list of suitably qualified saddle repairers so you can comply with their official recommendation. I cannot imagine that the list will be a long one. I should be really interested to know how you get on. (I have been a lifelong user of Brooks saddles, but I feel that the excellence of the product is in spite of, rather than because of, the company.) Mick Agar
CJ

Re:Fitting Brooks saddle tension bolt

Post by CJ »

If you go to the CTC website, Bikes & Bits, Technical FAQs, Saddles ... you'll find a load of Q&A letters from past issues of Cycle on the subject, amongst which there's the address of a saddle repairer in Sussex as I (vaguely) recall.
thirdcrank

Re:Fitting Brooks saddle tension bolt

Post by thirdcrank »

Tony Colegrave
Well House
Hastings Road
Northiam
Rye
TN31 6HY

01797 252177


I looked this up elswehere on web following CJ's note. Still listed by BT so should still be up and running. Used to run the Brooks factory repair service so he must know what he is doing. In the meantime you wonder why Brooks don't have his name on a brass plate on their website.
Pedalling Pete
Posts: 3
Joined: 20 Jan 2007, 5:24pm

Re: Fitting Brooks saddle tension bolt

Post by Pedalling Pete »

Just to correct the posting from some 5 years back, but still popping up thanks to Google, the phone number listed for Tony Colegrave in 2011 on the BT website is 01797 253177. Just had the titanium tension bolt on B17 break. And there was me just bought Van Nicholas titanium frame and believing titanium was supposed to be bomb-proof!
pete75
Posts: 16370
Joined: 24 Jul 2007, 2:37pm

Re: Fitting Brooks saddle tension bolt

Post by pete75 »

http://pedaldamnit.blogspot.com/2010/01 ... anium.html

you need to read down a bit before someone explains how he did it.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
Pedalling Pete
Posts: 3
Joined: 20 Jan 2007, 5:24pm

Re: Fitting Brooks saddle tension bolt

Post by Pedalling Pete »

I've been corrected by Tony Colegrave: The tension bolt on the B17 titanium saddle is not titanium - it's steel! It was fairly straigtforward to refit a new bolt on the B17 titanium. I gather other models might not be so easy to fit with a replacement tension bolt, so might be better to let Tony Colegrave have the complete saddle to repair.

There were some marks on the shackle from the thread of the original tension bolt. That suggested that before the bolt broke it was subject to bending stresses from the rails. We wondered whether the greater flexion in the titanium rails, compared to the heavier steel rails, was increasing the bending stresses on the tension bolt. If so, then one might need to keep the tension higher on the titanium saddles compared to those with steel rails. And that, in turn, might negate one of the claimed benefits of the titanium saddles - greater comfort due to greater flexibily of the titanium rails! But then I'm no expert.
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