# Working With Brooks Carriages



## SirMike1983 (Sep 27, 2012)

I've had an old B66 Brooks saddle sitting in a canvas bag at my place for almost 3 years now. It was my long-time rider saddle until the front became loose. I'd known for awhile you can fix up American balloon tire-type pan saddles, but never fooled with a Brooks before, because I'd never needed to. After it became loose in 2009 I put it away and replaced it with a new Brooks, but since the leather was so good on the old one, I kept it. I decided this past weekend to work on it. I found the loose front piece was a tapered binder rivet, not a bolt. I disassembled the carriage and drilled it out.
I just couldn't force anything in and have it stay. So I drilled and punched out the old rivet, fitted a bolt of the same size, then added lock washers, a thick fender washer, and bolted it together. I put some loctite on the bolt for good measure. I then reassembled the saddle. I did try to get the top of the screw as the down/outside to resemble the original rivet more, but the nut plus lock washer combo would not fit in underneath the tensioner bolt.



























So the bottom line is: yes, you can take a Brooks carriage apart with household tools. A pedal or thin wrench of the correct size helps because some of the nuts you need to get at are tie up with the springs. Mine was 13mm.

Most of the components are bolts, with a standard right hand thread. However, that larger binder in the nose of the saddle is not a bolt but a tapered rivet. It has 2-3 spaces and a pan head holding it in place. If the spacers crack/break then the saddle nose becomes loose. The rivet is normal, mild steel and will drill out with a drill bit meant for household/light shop metal work. My replacement bolt was 1/4 by 1 inch and matched the rivet, though the bolt head was smaller. The fender washer is needed for the part that goes up against the bottom of the lower rails. The entire job can be done with common tools.


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## SirMike1983 (Feb 7, 2013)

I finally got around to putting this saddle back in service. Glad to have it back.


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## OldRider (Feb 7, 2013)

Mike, I want to say thanks for your informative post. I have the exact same saddle with the exact same problem, I put mine away when the nose piece fell off and never thought to repair it. Now I'll see if I can do what you did


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