A new saddle should be treated with the Brooks Proofide leather dressing to help assist the 'breaking-in' process. Proofide is the only substance that should be used to care for your Brooks Leather Saddle.

Proofide keeps the leather supple as it is specially formulated from natural ingredients to condition, preserve and shower proof your saddle. Apply a little Proofide to the finished side of the leather. Allow the Proofide to permeate until dry and then polish off. Proofide should be used several times during the 'breaking-in' period and every 3-6 months thereafter. On bicycles not fitted with mudguards, an initial application to the underside of the saddle will be beneficial, this needs not to be polished off. The leather gets its colour during the tanning process and it is possible, therefore, that some colour residues will remain. It is recommended to polish the saddle with a soft cloth before first use.

About the Brooks England brand

The Brooks bike saddle story started way back in 1866, a young man of just 19 years of age was said to have bought 'one of those new-fangled velocipedes' which was fitted with a wooden saddle, this proved excruciating. As luck would have it his father made leather saddles for horses, so the young man known as John Boultbee Brooks set to work in his fathers workshop designing and developing a comfortable saddle from leather.<br/><br/>The rest they say is history....<br/><br/>Brooks experience in saddle making goes right back to the beginning - back to the period of solid tyres - and is unequalled by any other house in the world.<br/><br/>That said, they recognise the fact that they cannot rely on their past history alone, so they still build saddles with the same attitude as when they started, 'quality first', both in materials and manufacture. The testament to this is that there are still saddles in active use today, made many many years ago.