Shortened Brooks Swift saddles - Does anyone know about these?

[GrahamJohnWallace]

I have aquired two shortened Brooks Swift saddles but can't find out anything about them.



Was this ever a standard short model from Brooks? or do you think they have been modified?

The leather is a sligntly different shape on the shortened version and there are no saddlebag loops.


For comparison, here's a photo of a standard Brooks Swift:

 

[Jonny69]

Not saying it wasn’t a thing but I’ve never seen it mentioned anywhere.

A standard Brooks doesn’t have those bullet shaped things on the fronts of the rails. I think what you’re looking at is a modified saddle where the rails have been cut and sleeved, but as for why they didn’t make new rails or weld the originals is anyone’s guess.

 

[ferrus]

Having new rails made would’ve been the best approach I suppose, but including the chroming it’s a lot of fiddling. Likewise welding.
This looks like a decently engineered solution to me (assuming it’s a modification)

 

[KermitGKona88]

Say they are prototypes and sell them on eBay for 1 million dollars... Mwahahahahahaha!!!

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. It did cross my mind that they may have been made from standard Swift saddles where the leather had stretched that much that it could no longer be tightened. However, neither of the shortened saddles have the saddle bag loops you would normally expect to find at rear of most Swift saddles.

Even stranger, one of the shortened saddles is made from chromed steel and the other from titanium.

The saddle bag loops on a standard length Brooks Swift...

...are missing from titanium frame and chromed steel shortened versions:


Though both shortened saddles have the Brooks Swift logo embossed either side in the leather the titanium version is missing its riveted on Brooks badge and there are no holes in the leather to suggest it has ever had one. Which fits the "prototypes" that never made it into production idea?

 

[ferrus]

Interesting. Are there any signs of the saddle bag loops having been cut off?

 

[Gtpulse]

In the first photo looks like the tension bolt has been changed for one with a hex head as well or am I seeing things?

 

[greencat]

In the first photo looks like the tension bolt has been changed for one with a hex head as well or am I seeing things?

IIRC some of the Brooks saddles did have a hex head.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

Interesting. Are there any signs of the saddle bag loops having been cut off?

On close inspection there are signs of the loops having been removed, though this has been very neatly done.

Whilst there are feint file marks where the loops should join onto the titanium saddle, the missing chrome on the edges of the steel saddle makes me believe that they have been removed.

 

[GrahamJohnWallace]

IIRC some of the Brooks saddles did have a hex head.

Whilst all three Swift saddles are currently fitted with hex heads there was a standard tensioning bolt with them.

The shortened saddles aren't held together with the usual larger head copper rivets but smaller ones made from what looks like aluminium. Whilst they are actual rivets on the steel version on the titanium they look to be countersunk head Allen key bolts fitted with nyloc nuts. And though the Allen key bolt heads have been covered over with some kind of rubberised coating, there are no marks in the leather that you would expect to see left behind if larger copper rivets had been removed.

Whilst I am tending to think that they have started out as standard Swift saddles that have later been shortened, there are pointers that indicate they may have been fabricated from parts that have not been assembled into a saddle before. These are that there are no signs whatsoever that a Brooks nameplate has ever been riveted onto the titanium version, and no marks being left behind after the removal of the original large copper rivets.

These are the sort of modifications that David Wrath-Sharman of Highpath Engineering used to make to existing products. I need to decipher the date stamps on the saddles to see if these fit his timeline.