There is a man called Simon Firth who runs Hanford Cycles in Philadelphia who was trained here at the factory in Smethwick so he should be more than capable of repairing it for you. His email addresses are: hanfordcycles@gmail.com or brooksrepair1@gmail.com.The second email address is no longer in use but after sending a message to Hanford Cycles I quickly got a response from Simon Firth. Repairing my B17 would cost 36 dollars for parts, 35 for labor and about 10 for shipping, totaling at 81 dollars. Plus the cost for me to ship the broken saddle to Philly and the ever-looming Canadian custom fees and taxes. Now I by no means think that these charges are too high (an online friend from Germany told me that he was quoted a total of 60 Euros for a repair directly at Brooks); however, I had bought the B17 for 90-something dollars shipped. So I don't think I'll have the saddle professionally fixed.
At the same time, I really don't want to throw out a piece that has served me so well and is in principle repairable. As a result I will attempt a repair myself. As mentioned before, Brooks sells all the necessary spare parts (i.e. the frame plus rivets) and their shipping charges to Canada are reasonable. Another online friend directed me at this very detailed how-to and the process seems to be doable. Some more advice and pictures can be found here. It's all in German but the pictures should be helpful. I'll order the spare parts soon and will report on the repair.
In the meantime, I have replaced the Brooks with the Velo Orange Model 1 and after the first 120km ride I'm pretty happy with it. But more on that in another post.
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