Fahrenheit531 

I'd like to hear anyone's long-term experience when it comes to jeans versus leather saddles. More a point of curiosity than anything, I suppose. I'm conducting my own trials (blue Wranglers v. white Regal) and am more interested in physical wear than discoloration.

Personally, I wear jeans about half the time I'm in the saddle. At this point the white is somewhat less white than what we started with, but I've found that if I give the saddle a good rubdown with a soft cloth soon after riding I can get rid of most of the blue before it really sets in. I've noticed some of the surface finish breaking up though; is that specific to the harsh rub of denim (as compared with cycling shorts) or more just the inevitable product of sweat and time?

gaucho777 

My experience is that the nose of the saddle will also wear prematurely. The inseam is pretty harsh on soft leather. I'd ride with jeans on my Ideale saddles (or Brooks, if I had one), but I would avoid jeans with leather covered saddles such as a Rolls, Regal, Flite, etc. This was after just a couple months of occasional commuting (maybe a couple times per week, only 4 miles roundtrip at the time) to work in khakis. Notice the chaffing around the San Marco logo near the nose. It got worse in terms of both discoloring and chaffing around the nose before I stopped that habit and replaced the saddle with a black one.

Reynolds 

I have an old Rolls (the one covered with perforated leather) on my commuter and after 2yrs/12000km in jeans there's a patch missing at the center top.

JTTDF

I scored the leather across the nose of a Brooks B72 after just a couple rides in a newer pair of Levis 501's. The seams in the crotch were quite prominent. Old jeans don't seem (seam?) as bad.

seedsbelize 

I can't imagine riding in jeans.

Chombi

Yes jeans could be really tough on saddles, especially brand new jeans that ten to have a tooth to them before the soften up. The rivits at the pockets might also be dangerous around perforated saddles as they might catch on them whil carrying the bike, like on stairs.
I used to cover my saddles with those branded (sometimes Selle Italia, Concor, Turbo...etc) very thin and tight fitting, lycra backed vinyl rubber faced covers that were available at most LBS's in the 80's, but quite rare these days. They were cheap and great at protecting one's saddle from too much wear and moisture damage, but only usually lasts about 3/4's of a season with everyday riding.
I eventually found a modern lycra/neoprene one in black that does not fit as snug as the old ones that I use to keep my white and suede saddles from wearing out too soon. So far, so good. but white C&V saddles will always turn an ivory color after some years, no matter how much you pamper/maintain it.
Someone please make those cool looking covers from the 80's again and I'll maybe buy a whole box-full of them to last me a lifetime!

Fahrenheit531 

The old versus new jeans is something I hadn't thought about. I'm seeing minimal chafing as in the pic above (but different location, as there's no embossed SM badge on the Regal to give the extra edges), but it seems to be occurring at a rate more similar to that described by Reynolds, which I consider tolerable. I'd imagine new, stiff denim would chew that sucker up in no time flat. Learned somethin'! Woohoo!

ThermionicScott 

Same here. Some people are really attached to making it work, though.

CrankyFranky

I have a ~1980 Brooks Professional select that I rode while going to University in England. I always wore jeans then when riding. I still have the saddle on my daily commuter - and looking carefully at the seat, I can see a slight depression across the seat right where the inner leg seams meet the crotch seam. The saddle is still tight and in reasonable nick considering its age and the fact that it rains in England sometimes. But then, I hardly ever wear new jeans when I ride - too darn stiff!
Oh yeah - all the saddle black slowly transferred itself from the saddle to whatever jeans I was wearing at the time . Now, it's "natural" rather than black.

-holiday76

i've commuted with jeans/brooks saddles many times, and most times in the fight of denim vs leather, leather wins.

Henry III

I can't imagine commuting in jeans. Even with my 6 mile commute I'll slap on some shorts or cycling apparel. Maybe down to the mailbox just down the street in jeans when I get home from work but that's about it. Props to those who do it though.

jon c. 

In the 70s, I always rode in jeans. If I was in shorts, they were cut off jeans. Didn't seem to be a problem with a Brooks back then, but both the jeans and the saddles may have been different.

The rider is different now and since I returned to the saddle, I haven't given a thought to riding in jeans.

79pmooney

Are you guys treating your leather seats with leather dressing? It is my experience that the seats last far longer when dressed properly. (I like to use SnowSeal, a beeswax based dressing.

I haven't put denim on a bicycle seat for trips longer than 2 miles round trip in several decades but the saddle was never consideration. My comfort was.

Ben

Lascauxcaveman 

It's been a million years since I rode in jeans, and I was a lot skinnier back then. And on a white sparkle vinyl banana seat.

Now I'm a big old guy and wear khakis almost exclusively, (khaki shorts in summer) and since they are a lighter fabric and tend to fit kind of loosely, they are always comfortable unless I'm dripping hot. I've only got one white leather saddle (a vintage Concor) and it never showed any wear or discoloration. If anything, it has become more brightly "polished" with use.

Fahrenheit531 

Agreed. Commuting in jeans seems not a great idea. But I do a lot of odd runs to the grocery store or wherever with the messenger bag, four miles here, five there, and swapping into riding gear every time I do that seems excessive to me; I just wanna get on and go.

Bobtoo

I can't imagine riding in anything else.

SJX426 

I stopped years ago. You may talk about the seam of the jean and the leather on the saddle but I am more concerned about the discomfort on the other side of the seam. I have occasionally worn jeans when doing a family ride of a couple of miles but it comes back to the seam issue every time.

Velognome 

An upright set up with a hard leather saddle cures this....makes you a bit slower but....ehhh....sometimes you just don't care.

-holiday76

if commuting in jeans seems like such a bad idea you probably should consider getting jeans that fit correctly

that said its usually for short distance type stuff where you arent sweating or working too hard. And on bikes that has a somewhat upright seating position.

arex

Once, when I was young and stupid, I decided to recover the ragged seat on my Azuki in denim from an old torn-up pair of jeans. Seemed like a good idea at the time, and it looked "cool" (quotation marks are ironic). You can imagine how well that went in the long term.

Ex Pres 

Swap it around. I recovered a saddle for my daughter's campus bike in denim.
She rode it for several years, but has sold the bike, so I don't know if it's still going strong.

EDIT: I see arex above tried the same. Here's the one I did on the bike:

Reynolds 

No problem here, even after 3-4 hrs of commuting sometimes. Of course proper cycling shorts (no underwear ) are much better and I always wear them for training/group riding.

Hudson308 

Yep.

seypat

There is a pun in there somewhere with jeans, denim, tacky, leather and saddle. But I can't come up with it.

seedsbelize 

In all fairness, with the weather we have here, I rarely wear long pants let alone jeans. But I imagine there would be more chafing than I would be comfortable with.