 |
|
||||
|
|
||||
|
Home | Product Reviews | Saddle | Brooks Team Professional | ||||
|
|
||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
Submitted by
Sal Monella
from Texas
Date Reviewed: 5/5/2008 9:06:27 PM |
|
| Duration Product Used: | 1 Year |
| Price Paid: | $125 |
| Purchased At: | Online retailer |
| Strengths: | Top-notch product. Very comfortable once broken in. Saddle tilt and fore/aft adjustment are very important for a comfortable fit. Slick surface will lessen with use. |
| Weaknesses: | None. If you're worried about weight then drop some of that excess off your a$$. If you're having numbness issues then your saddle isn't adjusted properly. |
| Similar Products Tried: | Brooks B-17. |
| Bike Setup: | Reynolds 853 road bike with Campy Chorus. |
| Bottom Line: | As with most other riders I thought I had to have one of those lightweight a$$ hatchet saddles. Boy was I wrong. After trying a B-17 on the mountain bike I opted for the Team Pro for the road bike. I could not have made a better choice. While a little narrower than the B-17, the Team Pro is just as comfortable once broken in. Very classy saddle also. For those who poke fun at your Brooks, they'll come around eventually. |
Value Rating: 
Overall Rating:
|
|
|
Submitted by
Josh
from Longmont Colorado
Date Reviewed: 11/16/2006 7:55:51 AM |
|
| FavoriteTrail: | Windsor in Santa Fe |
| Duration Product Used: | 3 months |
| Price Paid: | $80 |
| Strengths: | Look very cool, seems to be durable |
| Weaknesses: | I could never get it to break in. I found myself constantly pushing back so that my sit bones were on the rear of the saddle. Otherwise, I'd sit too far up on the narrow hard middle of the saddle. Very uncomfortable for my body. |
| Similar Products Tried: | everything: SLR, Bontrager, Flight, WTB, Arione |
| Bike Setup: | Bianchi San Jose SS cross |
| Bottom Line: | Nice saddle - but doesn't fit me |
Value Rating: 
Overall Rating: 
|
|
|
Submitted by
Proximo Glutimous
a Cross Country Rider
from Boulder, CO USA
Date Reviewed: 7/18/2006 1:45:40 PM |
|
| Duration Product Used: | 6 months |
| Strengths: | Comfort |
| Weaknesses: | Doesn't like getting wet |
| Similar Products Tried: | Brooks B17, Specialized Avatar, E3 Form |
| Bike Setup: | 18" Access XCL, Marzocchi MX Pro fork, Shimano XT everything. |
| Bottom Line: | To the previous reviewer: if you are wearing holes in your shorts from the saddle rivets, your saddle is misadjusted and you are sitting *too far back*. The rivets connect the saddle leather to the underlying steel frame. You will never break in that steel frame by sitting on it. Try moving the saddle back and sit on the leather 1/2 to 1" or so in front of the rivets. Yes, you may feel like you are sliding off the saddle initially but once it breaks in that goes away. All in all, I wasted a lot of money on various modern saddles before trying a Brooks. Mine was comfortable out of the box once I got it set up and has been for 500 miles so far. The Team Pro has thicker leather than the B17 so it will take longer to break in but it still should be reasonably comfortable out of the box if you set it up right and give it a couple of liberal coats of Proofide to help things along. |
|
Value Rating:
Overall Rating:
|
|
|
Submitted by
Mike Callahan
a Racer
from Kings Beach Ca
Date Reviewed: 11/6/2005 9:23:49 PM |
|
| Duration Product Used: | More than 3 years |
| Strengths: | Cool retro look if that is what you are into. |
| Weaknesses: | Never breaks in. Looks are not everything especially if you want to use it. |
| Similar Products Tried: | Brooks Swallow |
| Bike Setup: | Too many bikes to list Colnago, Masi, WJL, Tommasso, Cinnelli, Specialized, |
| Bottom Line: | After hearing so much about the legendary comfort of these saddles I tried for years to break one in with no success. No amount of Proofide will help. All my shorts had holes in them in a ring corresponding to the rivets on the saddle. Even though the rivets are flat and polished they are still metal and on he drops you will sit on them. I rode countless centuries on these saddles and wore out at least four over the years. I was never happy and I never was able to break one in. They were always a pain and I don't know why it took me so long to give up on them. Since I have used many other saddles including Selle Turbos, Avocet RS, Flite Unicanoiter and on and on. All of those saddles were better than the Brooks and less than half the weight too. These saddles are a myth. They are heavy and a pain in the A--. They look cool to the geeky set though. |
Value Rating: 
Overall Rating:
|
|
|
Submitted by
chuck cypert
a Cross Country Rider
from dallas, the metromess
Date Reviewed: 12/24/2003 10:09:01 AM |
|
| FavoriteTrail: | Old Ore Road |
| Duration Product Used: | 6 months |
| Price Paid: | $80 |
| Purchased At: | eBay |
| Strengths: | Classic beauty, timeless design. |
| Weaknesses: | Weighty, not yuppified enough for average riders. No bag mounting tabs. |
| Similar Products Tried: | Too many to name but many Brooks and Ti Flites. |
| Bike Setup: | 25 year old Ron Cooper touring bike recently refinished and restored to full Campy glory. |
| Bottom Line: | You will either love this thing or hate it, I don't think there is any in between. I love the way the honey leather turns chocolate brown when you treat it with Proofide and the way the large rivets look like pennies when they are polished from use. I have several Brooks saddles and they definitely work for me but I am pretty old school so when I restored my old bike there was no other saddle. Casual riders may not be able to appreciate a real handmade leather saddle the way someone with several decades of dedicated riding can. I am in the habit of taking new Brooks saddles and coating them with Proofide and setting them in the sun all day and repeating the process until they are fully infused (underside too). Then, once or twice a year remedial Proofide and enjoy for life. You can ruin a Brooks with too much Proofide, so they say, but I have never seen this happen and have never had a problem with any of mine. |
|
Value Rating:
Overall Rating:
|
|
|
Submitted by
TruckeeLocal
a Cross Country Rider
from Truckee, CA
Date Reviewed: 6/23/2003 2:34:43 PM |
|
| FavoriteTrail: | The 06 |
| Duration Product Used: | More than 3 years |
| Price Paid: | $40 |
| Purchased At: | England |
| Strengths: | Comfort, comfort, comfort |
| Weaknesses: | Weight Some maintenance |
| Similar Products Tried: | Older Team Professional, B17-Ti, standard saddles supplied with bikes |
| Bike Setup: | Ellsworth Id with XT, CrossMax XLs |
| Bottom Line: | This is the real deal. Black leather saddles are why cycling shorts are black. It's taken about 75 miles of off-road riding to break in my new Team Professional. That's a bit longer than it took for me to break in my B17 (see separate review). Other differences to the B17 are that it's narrower which gives more options with regard to positioning yourself on the bike, and it doesn't have the saddlebag tabs that seem to catch my shorts sometimes. These things are heavy compared to 'normal' saddles. Fine if you're a weigh weany, go somewhere else. But nothing, in my experience, is as comforable as a broken-in Brooks. Don't get the tension wrench - you may be tempted to use it and potentially ruin a fine saddle. Do get the proofide. Use it. And don't believe that it mustn't get wet. Rubbish. These things are made in ENGLAND. Duh. It rains there. I ran my old Team Professional on a touring bike in Belgium for 3 years and 30,000 km. It rains there too. Put some proofide on the underside of the saddle and it will be fine. |
|
Value Rating:
Overall Rating:
|
|
|
Submitted by
Mike
a Cross Country Rider
from Monroe TWP, NJ, USA
Date Reviewed: 6/3/2003 2:27:24 PM |
|
| Duration Product Used: | More than 3 years |
| Price Paid: | $70 |
| Purchased At: | Colorado Cyclist |
| Strengths: | Built like a tank. |
| Weaknesses: | UGLY |
| Similar Products Tried: | so many saddles!!! |
| Bike Setup: | Brazed/lugged trek steel frame (ca. 1992), Shimano, Manitou Black 80/100 Elite (previously Manitou 2, 3), Avid disks, Sun rims, blah, blah |
| Bottom Line: | When I first bought this saddle (1997?), it went on my road bike and came right back off (and went in the 'I can't believe I wasted money on this thing' bin). Later that season, as a sort of a goof, I put the saddle on my mountain bike. Noone else I knew had one, so it was kind of different and cool. After about three months of riding that rock, an amazing thing happened. Two little dimples formed towards the back of the saddle, and it became the most comfortable saddle my butt has ever been on. I would have felt generous giving the Brooks one chili when I first bought it, but now I don't think five chilis is enough. The Team Pro is now on my road bike and I'm breaking in a Champion on my fat tire ride. For those who are wondering - I'm a biking heavyweight at 210 lbs. Now if I could only find a comfortable saddle for my 110lb wife... |
|
Value Rating:
Overall Rating:
|
|