Salubrious

I had an old rotted B-72 laying around, thought I might see if I could press it into service.

Not knowing what I was doing, I decided to see if I could replace the leather. I started by drilling out the rivets. I found a roll of 1/8" leather at a craft shop. Its enough leather to do 4-5 seats... I did my best to flatten out the old leather and used it a come up with a template. Actually I traced around it on the new leather. Not knowing what I was doing, I used a pen instead of a pencil... here are the results of that. The new leather has much more tan- it looks white due to the flash:



I used the drill to make holes for the new rivets. Because I did not know what I was doing, I went to the hardware store and got some nuts and screws for a dry fit to the cantle. I figured hot water from the tap would soften the leather and allow me to use the cantle as a form. So I bolted it up, lashed the leather with velcro stays (because I had no idea what I was doing) and let it dry:



After it dried the leather had taken on the desired shape plus some texture from the velcro straps (on account of I had no idea what I was doing):



I still had to fit the nose cantle. If I was doing this over, I would not have made the leather quite as long. Apparently the rotted leather was also stretched. So the new part was a little long. I went to Tandy leather and bought several kinds of rivets; here is what the seat looked like with the nuts and screws holding things in place, prior to oiling the leather and installation of the rivets:



What impresses me about this so far is how little work it is and how cheap its been. More to come.

fietsbob

DIY handicraft solutions are cool! the leather saddle types like Brooks are 100 + years old ..

they just kept selling them, and now the younger generation found them .

Fahrenheit531 

Pretty cool! I love the continued refrain of "no idea what I was doing," as I tend to learn through the process as well. Improvise!!

Salubrious

Improvisation is totally the name of the game here. For example, I couldn't find a set of shears powerful enough to cut the leather so a used a sharp kitchen knife seen in the first photo. If I had a set of shears, I could have made the cut of the leather a tad more uniform. I hated the idea of throwing the seat away, and B72s are actually more expensive and harder to find than B66s or the like. So it seemed like 'why not?'

Salubrious

Here's how the seat turned out. Two kinds of rivets are installed, because I didn't know what I was doing, so I tried both to see how they would work. One is a brass style that has a matching threaded part on the backside that can be engaged with a screwdriver. The second is a copper style that employs a washer on the backside that is slightly too small. It is driven into place with a small tool and a hammer.






As you can see the seat is now fully assembled. It was necessary to tighten the adjuster bolt about a third of its range to get the material tight enough.

The leather has seen several coats of Proofide top and bottom, plus mink oil and brown shoe polish. Really had no idea how to do this, should have applied the polish first, I think. It simply added texture.

Initially I had a problem where some of the leather bunched up around the nose. To solve that I put some water on the nose and heated up a small cast iron saucepan on the stove, which I used as a sort of iron and ran around the nose. As the water was evaporated, the leather tightened up and no more bunches. It darkened the leather in the process. So I doused the entire thing again and ironed the entire seat in this fashion.

Its pretty apparent to me now that Brooks has some sort of form like a waffle iron that is likely heated to a mild temperature, that is then clamped down over the dampened leather they are forming. Once you understand how that works, replacing the leather on almost any such seat should be a snap.

Things I will do differently next time:
* if using a template from an old saddle, use water and weights to flatten it, and then compensate for stretch when drawing out the new template.
* use a pencil when drawing on the leather
* some different means of drawing down/forming the leather to the desired shape, I like the plastic bag with the air removed that I saw on another thread.

The thing that took the longest in this project was waiting for the leather to dry, which took several days. I doubt I spent more than an hour doing this otherwise, if I exclude the time spent going to collect materials. But even then the time was minimal. It was also fun, and the new saddle is considerably more comfortable than the other examples I have on hand because the leather is a little softer. There is a black, wax treated variety of leather available that might make the leather be a little harder, in time I will see whether that is worthwhile.

a77impala

Very nice, that said I am afraid your leather is not thick enough. Brooks uses leather 5mm thick, 1/4" approximately. I did a B17 narrow using the thinner leather and it stretched beyond usable.
Not to be discouraging the next one you will sort of (know what you are doing)!

rootboy 

Good on ya for tackling this tricky operation. Not many would attempt it. For future reference, Google recovering a saddle and it will probably lead you to one of RHM's threads on the subject. He's the guru of saddle restoration on this forum and makes some beautiful saddles.

A couple of notes. Yes, Brooks uses a die and form on a big press machine, using dampened leather. There's a video of their process out there. You might consider purchasing some rivets directly from Brooks. They offer several kinds. You copper rivet and burr will work, but requires a certain amount of space for the burr, (washer) to set, and space is at a premium within the curved confines of that cantle plate. Your screw head fasteners, called Chicago screws, will not hold in the long run, I fear. You can't really tighten them enough.

Check out Rudi's and others', threads on this subject.
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...er-saddle.html

rootboy 

Lots of good info here too
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...ecovering.html

Salubrious

^^ Thanks- I have read those threads (that's where I got the word 'cantle' ). I thought I would try and see how it worked, get my hands dirty so to speak. Thanks for the tip on the Brooks rivets. I looked for a while at Tandy and could find nothing like them.

I have seen a wide variation in leather thickness with Brooks saddles. The leather I used was the same thickness as the stuff I removed and similar to other saddles I have. But a lot seems to depend on the actual leather itself and its own properties.

Thing is, this stuff is so easy! The rivets themselves are the hardest part. It only takes a few minutes to remove the leather portion. In the meantime, I have a saddle that works as opposed to one that didn't.

rhm

That thread is a pretty good guide to all the things you can possibly do wrong when recovering a saddle! I've updated my method considerably since then.

The way I see things, Brooks has a factory, full of big old machines, that they operate by hand. But they are still a factory with big machines. Their factory-made product is a close approximation of a saddle that was, originally, made completely by hand. To make one by hand, we have to figure out how the first ones were made. Knowing how Brooks makes one today may, or may not, help us figure this out.

rootboy 

interesting videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZP0xxfTeIc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9w-y24Waz4

Salubrious

I figure the sky is the limit with this stuff. Thanks for all the comments!

zonatandem

Back in the early 1980s my wife rode a Brooks B72 on the rear of our custom Assenmacher tandem.
On a 100 mile event in Arizona, she broke the saddle rails with about 30 miles left to ride.
Her reply: 'Find a rock and jam it between the saddle and the rear rack'!
First big rock I found by the roadside did the job!
. . . so she finished the ride on a saddle 'as hard as a rock'!
BTW the saddle had 'only' 33,000 miles on it when the rail broke. And, no, she ain't heavy . . . she weighs 103 lbs but is/was one helluva good/tough stoker!
BTW, nice job re-doing the leather . . . hope it holds up for 33,000 miles!
Yup . . . we are still riding 'in tandem' at ages 81/79!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

rootboy 

You did a great job for a first try!

Salubrious

Now I'm on the lookout for other rotted saddles!

romperrr 

Interesting tutorial. Thanks! I'll save it when I have the bandwidth to do a similar project.