We posted the big news here one month ago that Brooks is releasing a new saddle this year.
The Cambium C17‘s top is made of vulcanized natural rubber and a specially treated cotton canvas, and thus represents a rather fresh departure for us.
Coast to Coast. Tuula with the bikes in Florida.
Sustenance and Saddle Sense – Why a Brooks is like a well balanced meal.
By Tuula Rebhahn
Every Brooks saddle owner has had this experience. You pull up in front of the store, school or work and some non-cyclist approaches you to gawk at your saddle. It’s sleek, they say, but where’s the padding? You couldn’t pay me to sit on that thing!
On our tour through the southern United States, my partner Hannah and I have these interactions frequently. But the odd looks we receive outside the grocery store are nothing compared to those we receive inside. Passing on the fried chicken, ramen noodles and “sports” drinks, we stock up on eggs, prunes and salad greens, then refuse the plastic bag at the checkout line. We know we’re marking ourselves as weirdos – but hey, we already did that when we walked in with spandex and metal in our shoes.
Stop teasing! A quite unfulfilling glimpse of the new Brooks Cambium.
Readers of the 2013 Brooks Bugle will have had an informational head start on everybody else regarding the imminent release of a new addition to our range of fine bicycle saddles.
The current copy contains an article on our latest model, the Cambium C17. It’s a saddle that represents a fairly unusual departure for us in that its top is not made of leather (cue sharp intake of breath). Rather, it is made from natural rubber and organic cotton, and enhanced by a thin layer of structural textile for added resilience.
It is immediately comfortable and maintenance-free, which might possibly put a dent in our Proofide sales. Even without Proofide, it still offers the longevity for which our products are legendary.
Come on, bit more. I’ll see your two rivets and raise you a bag loop
But a rather interesting piece of extra news began doing the rounds yesterday, which we are happy to officially confirm for our readers today.
Between now and its release date, we are undertaking a worldwide search for 100 lucky people to road test the Brooks Cambium. The group as a whole will naturally consist of cyclists of both sexes, and encompass a full range of cycling activity and body types.
Part of A Return Of The Jedi Speeder Bike? Not quite. All will be revealed…
From the fair-weather, six stone bicycle commuter to the 300 pound daily Centurion, we hope to find our Cambium test pieces bolted to 100 very distinct seatposts.
Those chosen will report back to us with their impressions and experiences, and we’ll publish them in a special section of the Brooks website. Of course, our testers will all get to keep their Cambia in gratitude for their efforts, but would be strongly advised in advance to read our post on saddle theft prevention.
And those who apply unsuccessfully to test our Cambium will have the consolation of receiving a special discount code for our online shop. It will give you 10% off all Brooks purchases you make over the coming twelve months.
At any rate, several notable cycling websites publicized this news yesterday evening, along with a link to the Cambium Tester registration form. If you were one of the applicants who experienced the inconvenience of our server crashing under the weight of subscriptions, please accept our apologies. We are reliably informed that it’s “back up” again.
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has been firing back lots of good pictures from the Red Planet lately.
As we say, we are looking for a diverse pool of riders, not the first hundred who apply, so those who were unable to send their form to us yesterday are at no disadvantage in regard to the decision making process.
That said, we hope to ship out the 100 test pieces as soon as we can, around mid-May. So don’t dally, fill out our questionnaire and cross your fingers.
In Germany, riding with no hands will cost you €5 if a member of the force wishes to pull you on it. As will allowing a friend to hitch a lift on your rack.
Sir Hubert Opperman getting the knots in. Photo bicyclehistory.com.au
Scott Dickson will be known to regular readers of the Brooks Blog as one of a trio of Tasmanian tourers who like doing things the hard way. In 2011 they tackled Paris-Brest-Paris on machines which in their overall build largely pre-dated the Second World War.
Since that time we have heard from Scott in regard to their next project. A Land’s End to John O’ Groats ride in 2014, featuring the three once again on period machinery to mark the 80th anniversary of the 1934 LeJog record finishing time set by Sir Hubert Opperman (“Oppy”). We let Scott take up the story…
Click the pic to browse through the entire first edition of Bunyan Velo in fullscreen
The past few years have seen an ever-growing number of new publications vying for the attention of people who like to read in-depth stories about cycling. And the fact has not been lost on most editors that these readers also tend to like looking at well taken cycling photos as well.
We mentioned here recently how we have been lucky enough to have Rivendell’s Grant Petersen contribute a piece for our forthcoming edition of the Brooks Bugle.
The excellence of the machines designed and assembled by Petersen and his team in Walnut Creek, California has long since attained Article of Faith status among aficionados of lugged steel frames around the world. Not forgetting that before setting up on his own, his work as a designer at Bridgestone in the early 90s had already spawned the iconic X0 series.
Cycling in rural Zambia, one is more likely to have use for a beefy, 1950s-style single speed roadster with coaster brake than a lightweight modern carbon fibre superbike. It was with this in mind that SRAM co-founder F.K. Day immersed himself some years ago in the “unlearning process” and put The Buffalo, flagship model for the charity organization World Bicycle Relief, into production.
Patrick Siebert was in touch recently with us from Berlin. He posted to our Facebook page a couple of pictures of his freshly refurbished, vintage Diamant. We were curious to know a little more, and to this end Patrick has kindly supplied some more photos of the work in progress, as well as the full story behind his machine’s rebirth…
Sound advice, and there’s a book-load more where that came from. Now read on…
We revealed details a few weeks back of the imminent Brooks Dashing Bicycle show.
A collaborative venture involving several American Brooks Dealers of Excellence as well as a handful of carefully chosen names from the bike trade, Dashing Bike begins its gin-soaked tour of the United States on December 8th at Huckleberry Bicycles in San Francisco.
For anyone living nearby in need of further encouragement, we’re happy to report that Grant Petersen of Rivendell has been invited along to say a few words at the opening reception.
