'Colt' Leather Bike Saddle

Do you love the look and quality of Brooks England Ltd. bike saddles, but want to distance yourself from the tweed-knickers crowd? The soon to be re-released Brooks Colt may just be the saddle you’ve been waiting for. Originally sold from the late 1970s through the early 2000s, the Colt is back and being offered in turquoise, mustard yellow, violet and black to meet the demands of a “younger, style-conscious generation already romanced by the ’80s retro look,” as the company puts it.

Available now, the Colt retails for $195. While that might sound like a lot of money for a heavy, uncomfortable (for the first few hundred miles of ride time, at least) saddle, you’ve got to look at it like a nice pair of old-fashioned boots. Like all Brooks saddles, the Colt models are vegetable-tanned leather and handmade. Stiff and painful will soon give way to broken-in and formed specifically to your body.

To be sure, I got an early Colt to test, and while my initial experience with it felt akin to sitting on a solid wooden seat, it is beginning to soften now after a couple weeks of riding. A few more hundred miles should do the trick, I hope. If nothing else, I like to think of the break-in time as being rewarded for riding my bike. Plus, my bike seat has never looked classier, and with the solid Brooks build this saddle might just last me a lifetime — or maybe just until tweed pants come back into style.

—T.C. Worley