gaucho777 

My Ideale 90 is on its last legs. I thought I would chronicle its sad end.

I first acquired the saddle used but in seemingly excellent condition. It came on a rusted Nishiki, and was the main reason I bought the bike in the first place (I paid $80 total, a fair price for the saddle alone, and it came with a free Nishiki Competition was my thinking).



I never used it on the Nishiki, which got an Avocet Touring saddle instead. I held onto the Ideale saddle for another year or so, looking for just the right bike. Then I found my Cilo, which sees regular usage as a commuter.



Fast forward another couple years, I noticed a crack had formed on the left side just in front of the rear rivets. This was October 2014. I know the date because I PM'd @rhm at the time to get his input and ask if there were any stop-gap measures I might try in curtailing the damage.





His reply was not really and that failure was inevitable. I told him that I figured as much, and would run this saddle into the ground and then talk about hiring him to recover the saddle (that day is nigh, though money's a bit tight at the moment).

After first noticing the cracks, the saddle has held up better than I expected. I used this bike as a commuter, and put in well over 3,000 miles on the saddle from when those photos were taken in Oct. 2014 to the following photos in December 2015:



Notice another crack starting to form on the drive side as well:



The El Niņo season has not been kind to the aged saddle. A few wet rides in recent weeks have accelerated the saddle's inevitable demise. Here it is today:





I wonder what the over/under is on how many more miles I can squeeze out of this thing!

Drillium Dude 

Cool little history lesson. It'll be a sad day, however, when the two splits have a meeting of the minds and take her out of circulation

Are you thinking of retiring her before that happens, or does it matter?

DD

gaucho777 

I definitely will replace the saddle before Eroica CA in April. I do have a spare Ideale 80 in the wings. (I also have a spare Ideale 90 with alloy rails, but that's a bit too precious for commuting duty.) I know I should probably not replace the saddle immediately before the Eroica, so I can put in some time adjusting to the new saddle. On the other hand, with the El Niņo season upon us, I'm tempted to keep using this current saddle as long as I can, especially if I'm going to be commuting in the rain over the next couple months. So, I guess I'm intrigued and tempted to carry out this experiment as long as I can.

jyl

A rain cover might have helped. Why not try your hand at recovering it? If you can repaint a Look . . .

nlerner

I had a Raleigh Pro that failed in a similar way though it did take a good long time for those tears to start becoming uncomfortable to ride on. At that point, I sent it to @rhm to recover.

NormanF

If you like the saddle style, a Gilles Berthoud would be an excellent replacement candidate.

Lascauxcaveman 

Well, 3000 miles ain't too bad considering how dried out that thing looks. Although in that first photo, it looks pretty healthy. Is that just because it had just gotten a Proofide treatment, or is it just the soft focus?

Ain't you got a fendered bike for commuting? That and plastic grocery bag keep my Brooks' all bone dry.

JohnDThompson 

I wonder if gluing a fiberglass mesh to the underside might be a way of prolonging the life of saddles starting to fail in this manner?

3speedslow

Sorry to hear about the saddle, but the cradle lives on!

gomango

I've got a couple of extra 90s here on the shelf if you need one.

Looks like you got your monies worth.

Hudson308 

At the risk of beating a dead (cow?) to death, here's a bit of encouragement, courtesy of RHM. For leather saddles anyway, I'm now a believer in reincarnation...

Aubergine 

I love those Ideales. I hope you get it recovered when it finally goes.

Kactus

I've got a 90 available if you need a new one.

gaucho777 

To add some closure to this thread, I finally retired the Ideale 90 saddle the weekend before last. I added about 300 miles since first starting the thread. It probably would have held out for several hundred more dry weather miles, except that I started to get a small festering sore on my rump right on top of the tear. With Eroica CA coming next month, I did not want to take any chances of the sore getting worse. Plus, I also wanted to leave myself time to get used to the replacement saddle (another Ideale 90 I forgot I had). So, this experiment is over.

italianbiker

I used this silicone to repair the back of a Turbo leather saddle. When they rest against a wall they tend to wear to down to the foam. The tear was fixed with that type of silicone. I bought it at home deport for 4.50 approximately.

Don't throw it away, experiment a little. How about a leather needle and blue, white and red thread and stitch it? That saddle has history.

That should stop the tearing.