Spa leather saddles

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georgew
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Spa leather saddles

Post by georgew »

I've just bought a "Spa" leather saddle, the touring one which would be the equivalent of the Brooks B17. Great value at £35 and I'm impressed by the quality. The saddle features an Allen head tension bolt and has, what appears to be a waterproof membrane attached to the underside. A welcome addition given the prices now asked for the Brooks range I think.
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hubgearfreak
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Re: Spa leather saddles

Post by hubgearfreak »

another nail in the coffin of bristish manufacturing, and you're celebrating the fact?

well done on saving £20 over the next decade :roll:
djoptix
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Re: Spa leather saddles

Post by djoptix »

British manufacturing's coffin was nailed shut long ago. Plenty of normal people don't want to pay the Brooks tax - get used to it.
PW
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Re: Spa leather saddles

Post by PW »

Brooks' fault. They're pricing themselves out of the market. The cost of a B17 was £21 not long back. Now the cheapest version is north of £50. I know things are going up but that's shameless profiteering. When they bring the price back to a sensible profit margin - and I don't expect them to sell loss leaders - I'll buy their products again. Colin you'll be getting a call next week after payday!
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hubgearfreak
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Re: Spa leather saddles

Post by hubgearfreak »

djoptix wrote:Plenty of normal people don't want to pay the Brooks tax

PW wrote:Brooks' fault. They're pricing themselves out of the market.


you're probably right. meeting western european standards for worker's pay and conditions and environmental protection costs.
we know for ourselves the ever increasing costs of electricity, local government rates & etc. it seems strange that we think brooks should be immune from such increases.
JohnW
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Re: Spa leather saddles

Post by JohnW »

I've not seen a Spa saddle, but it'll be worth considering. Do they have the large copper rivets?

A problem that Brooks have - or so their rep told me at York Rally this year - is the difficulty of getting British leather of the necessary quality nowadays. Because of the BSE scares and the rule which now means that animals for meat have to be slaughtered younger, the leather hasn't gained it's toughness on the beast.

Far-Eastern countries don't have such health rules - and their animal welfare standards may upset you.

Spa may have found an alternative source for saddles because they may have had a lot of Brooks saddles returned in recent years.

I shall be needing a new saddle within the next year or so, but I'll probably pay the extra for Brooks - that's if Spa are still selling them.
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Si
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Re: Spa leather saddles

Post by Si »

Please can you take the extended discussion of buying British elsewhere? The review section of the board is meant to be for factual reviews of products or services. Mentioning being built in the UK as an advantage is OK, but then going off at a tangent about all that home-grown vs imported entails doesn't really tell us much about the functionality of the product in question. By all means, continue this topic in another, more fitting, part of the forum, but for the reviews section please stick to "the facts ma'am, just the facts".
JohnW
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Re: Spa leather saddles

Post by JohnW »

Si wrote:................. "the facts ma'am.............".


"Ma'am"! - me? - I can lend you a book about these matters Si!
JohnW
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Re: Spa leather saddles

Post by JohnW »

Si wrote:Please can you take the extended discussion of buying British elsewhere? The review section of the board is meant to be for factual reviews of products or services. Mentioning being built in the UK as an advantage is OK, but then going off at a tangent about all that home-grown vs imported entails doesn't really tell us much about the functionality of the product in question. By all means, continue this topic in another, more fitting, part of the forum, but for the reviews section please stick to "the facts ma'am, just the facts".


I'm not altogether happy with that Si. I'm only speaking for myself, and neither you nor anyone else has to agree with me, but the question of whether an item is British Made or not is both valid and relevant....and no-one on this thread has gone over the top about the issue.
PW
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Re: Spa leather saddles

Post by PW »

Likewise. Brooks pricing policy seems to be deliberate and since ......(now who and what nationality was it???) .....
someone took them over. That's legitimate grounds for complaint on a review board.
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fatboy
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Re: Spa leather saddles

Post by fatboy »

JohnW wrote:
Si wrote:Please can you take the extended discussion of buying British elsewhere? The review section of the board is meant to be for factual reviews of products or services. Mentioning being built in the UK as an advantage is OK, but then going off at a tangent about all that home-grown vs imported entails doesn't really tell us much about the functionality of the product in question. By all means, continue this topic in another, more fitting, part of the forum, but for the reviews section please stick to "the facts ma'am, just the facts".


I'm not altogether happy with that Si. I'm only speaking for myself, and neither you nor anyone else has to agree with me, but the question of whether an item is British Made or not is both valid and relevant....and no-one on this thread has gone over the top about the issue.


I think that the first post by hubbers was pretty OTT actually. Someone has bought themselves something that they like and is reporting it to others yet he was actively critisised for it. Perhaps there was a point but the tone of the first comment was all wrong.

Personally I think that a bit of competition won't do Brooks any harm. They have a "made in Britain" thing that appeals to our friends over the pond and also the rapha wearing londonites, but the price of saddles all round has got silly and none more than Brooks which whilst they are long lasting are too expensive for ordinary people to buy at £60 to try out to see if they like them.
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Malaconotus
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Re: Spa leather saddles

Post by Malaconotus »

I noticed yesterday that the SRP of all Brooks saddles has just increased again. A B17, the cheapest available, is now £69.99, meaning that list price has more than doubled in four years.

I appreciate that some of this is a result of high inflation and UK manufacturing costs, but fear that a substantial part is purely a result of establishing the products as boutique or premium items. (viz. the fancy box with a copy of the Brooks Bugle etc., which seems to be targeted at the Amercian market)
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MikewsMITH2
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Re: Spa leather saddles

Post by MikewsMITH2 »

I have just bought another B17. That makes 4. They still widely available for £60, which I think is a very reasonable price for a hand made item that with care can last you a lifetime. I did manage to break one this year, but it was 60 years old :-) There are plenty of good quality plastic alternatives around for them that would prefer to buy a consumable rather than an investment. If people want to try one and find it doesn't suit them, it will sell on this forum in less than a day IME for not much less than you paid for it.
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georgew
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Re: Spa leather saddles

Post by georgew »

Malaconotus wrote:I noticed yesterday that the SRP of all Brooks saddles has just increased again. A B17, the cheapest available, is now £69.99, meaning that list price has more than doubled in four years.

I appreciate that some of this is a result of high inflation and UK manufacturing costs, but fear that a substantial part is purely a result of establishing the products as boutique or premium items. (viz. the fancy box with a copy of the Brooks Bugle etc., which seems to be targeted at the Amercian market)


Absolutely right in in your assumption and I do know (from being informed directly by a retailer), that there was a deliberate attempt by Brooks' agent to increase the price of Brooks saddles sold by retailers at the time that Brooks was making great efforts to penetrate the American market.
I've been buying Brooks saddles for around forty years and during that time have influenced many of my friends to buy these products. Having watched the new company's successful attempts to market Brooks as a high-status, niche product, with the vastly increased price that this approach entails, I feel no guilt at buying an alternative quality product at an attractive price.
JohnW
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Re: Spa leather saddles

Post by JohnW »

Can ypu give us a report/review on the Spa saddle please George? I'm very interested.
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