Brooks Saddles  reigned supreme throughout the era. B17 Narrow was fitted to most road bikes, B17 Sprinter for track bikes.

#3115 1936: Brooks B17 Sprinter

#4216 1948: Brooks B17 Flyweight (Al.cantleplate)

#4921 1961 saddle on a ’55 bike: Brooks Professional (comfy).

This was Brooks’ commercial version of saddles modified by Otussi in a workshop under the Vigorelli track in Milan. This was B17 Champion Standard, which was quite wide, & came c/w saddle bag loops. He used to take off the leather and put the saddle frame into a vice, squeezing it to make it more rounded. The holes on the leather now no longer matched those in the cantle so they had to be widened.

That meant the original rivets weren’t wide enough, so new ones were made from copper and hammered flat over the hole. Hence the attractive big rivets that Brooks copied. Surplus leather was then trimmed away with a knife.

There were countless ways to treat the leather, none of them recommended by the maker and most of them doubtless nonsense. They included soaking the leather in vinegar, water, wine – anything – and then bind it with tape so that it dried rounded. Leather grease and seeping lanolin from shorts – plus a lot of riding – did the rest (Info from Grant Thomas & Leo Woodland)

#5000 ’56 Tourer: Brooks B17 Standard

Jensen 64942 Brooks Campagnolo. (Hard as hell). The long narrow rails allowed extended fore-aft adjustment on the specially dimensioned campagnolo seat-pin clamp.