A nice Illustration from page 3 of the 1937 Brooks Book of Saddles and Kit
A lesson in good copywriting from our forebears
Whilst researching in the archives I stumbled on this missive from a pre-war Brooks Book of Saddles and Kit for Cyclists and Motorcyclists. Simply put, it is a salutary lesson in how to write concise and informative notes on correct saddle choice.
Nick Hand, pausing to catch a breath on his coastal cycling jaunt.
There’s something about Long Distance Touring that has an attractiveness for increasing numbers of people these days. By switching off the phone, packing up their panniers and seeing where the next road takes them, cyclists can find the time and space to follow their instincts, form their own ideas, and see the the world truly with their own eyes.
An incomparable vista. Riding the twisting, gravelly tracks of Chianti at L’Eroica. (Photo Dustin Nordhus, Cicli Berlinetta)
The dust has quite literally begun to settle once again in northern Italy, where a few weeks back Gaiole played host to a couple of thousand cyclists set on recreating the feel of a bike race entirely devoid of Carbon Fibre, Synthetic Isotonic Potions, System Pedals, or any other development conceived over the past thirty years to make a ride last less long.
Of course we’re talking about L’Eroica, and Brooks was once again a proud sponsor of the event. Shortly before this year’s instalment we managed to get in touch with our good friend Mark Reber, who was making the trip over from the United States. He kindly agreed to collect some of his impressions of the weekend and commit them to paper for us, while taking many fine photographs (MR), some of which are interspersed below with those of his friend Rodger Lynch (RL) and Dustin Nordhus (DN). Now read on…
Inflation in 1920′s Germany would have made this a Six Million Mark Bicycle.
A bike restoration project is one of those happy undertakings in which those involved frequently wish they’d never started, yet secretly hope will never end. In this regard we have some good news, and also some bad news reaching us this morning from Hamburg, Germany, where Nico Thomas and his two sons have recently applied the final revitalizing touches to a machine first ridden over 80 years ago.
A flavour of L’Eroica’s 2010 instalment from the Tweed Run‘s own Ted Young-Ing. (Bregan and Tim doing their best for the camera)
“The organization will not admit riders with farcical or ironic clothing or behaviour.”
(Excerpt from the 2011 Rules and Regulations)
As autumn approaches, 500 lucky non-Italians are doubtless polishing their first generation Campa Gruppos, Proofiding their leather helmets and scouring vintage stores for a decent woollen maglia. Yes, Siena’s l’Eroica is once again soon upon us!
The next time you find yourself perched comfortably atop your favourite Brooks-equipped bicycle, enjoying a smooth ride and experiencing no discomfort due to inadequate or even downright unsuitable seating arrangements, take a moment and spare a thought for your earliest bicycling forebears. At the time of the first craze for two-wheeled locomotion in the latter half of the nineteenth century, the new-fangled devices were dubbed “bone-shakers”, being reliant upon a bar of iron (that famously supple material!) across the top of the frame to support the seat!
Food for further rumination whilst enjoying your ride in Brooks-supported comfort, here are a few further milestones in the history of the company which have perhaps done the most to reduce the shaking of your bones. Alas, this being a Blog somewhat hampers any depiction of these events as a ‘Timeline’. None-the-less, this chronology of events culminating in the supreme comfort from which you benefit each time you mount your bicycle serves to illustrate our dedication to your posterior comfort.
Ossie’s saddle was also from Birmingham
Long-haul cycling record attempts tend to be made with a Brooks on top, but this hardly qualifies as news. Most of those signed up for Vin Cox‘s jaunt across the planet in 2012 will have something from Smethwick bolted to their seatposts when setting off from Black Heath next year.
But as they warily ponder what they’re letting themselves in for, Global Bicycle Race entrants might be able to take some measure of solace from an account of a feat of endurance cycling so, well, enduring, that no one has taken a crack at it for over seventy years.
Below is an article from our 1938 Brooks Book, detailing the long distance relationship between Australian Ossie Nicholson and Frenchman René Menzies who in 1937 both attempted the record for highest mileage covered by bike in a single year.
Wrights Saddles
Recently our terribly popular Facebook page was queried as to whether or not Brooks used to own Wrights Saddles. My impetuous and incorrect response garnered a written clarification by none other than Steven Green, who has been with Brooks for over 30 years and manages our office in Smethwick.
Quoting Steven: “Brooks did own Wrights (and technically still do)”
He talks the talk. Does he walk the walk? Or is it the other way round?
Instead of the antipasti and vino rosso of Siena’s L’Eroica, it’ll be moules frites and lashings of heavily fortified beer this coming Sunday, when devotees of that exotic and near-extinct breed of cyclist, The Flemish Hardman gather in Oudenaarde, Belgium to pay rolling hommage over the potentially (but hopefully not) slippery cobblestones of the Flandrian countryside.
Our story finds us in the Midlands on a dark winter morning in 1862, the young John Brooks awaking from strange dreams. Having completed his ablutions, and breakfasted on a gruel of buttermilk and barley, he makes to leave for work, only to open the stable door and find that at some point in the night his horse, Ned, has shuffled off its piece of this mortal coil.
