I was recently given a B67 S Aged for my birthday, classically sprung for supreme comfort but wider and softer than other models.

It sounds like I got given a bed mattress, but I am actually describing my newly-acquired Brooks saddle.

This is my first Brooks and I now feel initiated into the club that has been running since 1866!

The Brooks Company is steeped in history. The saddles are still handmade in Smethwick, in the West Midlands, and maintain that allure that any prestige brand must have.

Riders who favour Brooks saddles refer to the comfort they receive from their saddles – once you have broken it in through riding, it becomes moulded to their body.

Even the professionals forsake the lightweight plastic throwaway saddles because of the extraordinary comfort you get from these leather beauties.

But weight is not the only downside to a “proper saddle”.

Like any dependent in your life, they need care and feeding. If you were considering buying your loved one a pet for Christmas, get a Brooks instead, as they are just as much trouble.

The leather stretches and you will need to tension it, although this shouldn’t happen for a couple of thousand miles (to compensate, you can stretch the leather longitudinally via the tension nut....).

Also, don’t forget to feed them, right from the start.

With the correct feeding the leather shouldn’t stretch as much and there should be less need to move the tension nut. So, I hear you ask, what do you feed them?

Never, ever give them oil, as the leather is porous and although the oil will slow water absorption, it will expand the pores of the leather rendering it useless.

Brooks advocate their own solution, called Proofide, instead.

The main ingredients are tallow, cod oil, paraffin wax, Beeswax and citronella which gives it its distinctive smell, but if you are desperate and your proofide is nowhere to be seen, good old shoe polish will do.

My saddle is one of 43 in the range. Brooks also produces limited editions, taking the overall range to 55.

I don’t want to sound like a cycle geek here but if you want heritage on your bike, get the B17, the most popular classic Brooks saddle and probably the longest-known saddle still in manufacture, with sales dating back to 1896.

That’s more than 100 years of popularity and, as uncommon as it is to find a company still in business after 140 years, one still making an item that has remained essentially unchanged for so long is literally unheard of.

If you want to splash the cash, the most expensive Brooks’ designs have titanium rails. The Team Pro Titanium comes in at around £180 and the B15 Swallow Titanium an astonishing £250, which is a lot of cash for a saddle but your bum deserves it.

My saddle is not top of the range but it is lovely; the S stands for short, traditionally favoured by the ladies and it’s ‘aged’, so comfortable from day one, with less breaking in needed than others.

I have put my B67 S Aged on my 1979 Triumph Traffic Master but I fear my other bikes are getting jealous.

With Christmas just around the corner, how I hope Santa brings me another...