Originally Posted by
pastorbobnlnh
As many on C&V know, I have a soft spot for collecting leather saddles.
Brooks, Wrights, Felt, Middlemore, and Ideale are all in my collection. Many are mounted on bikes which are ridden. A few Brooks are limited edition models.
Several saddles have been rescued from my town's "Stump Dump," which contains the scrap metal pile.
This week, while poking in the pile, where many treasures have been found in the past, I slid a battered metal cabinet off a--- stem shifter, turkey wing, steel rimmed, equipped Shogun. The bike was still wedged under a few other pieces of scrap, and could not be retrieved, but moving the cabinet, revealed an old leather saddle!
Looking a little closer I spotted the stamping in the rivets, and they read, "Ideale."
But the condition was so sad! The top had developed a scaling like I had never seen. It was reptilian in appearance.
To be continued....
This is a case of preservation, not restoration.
If it was mine I would clean it gently, seal it to prevent further deterioration, and put it on display... but would never ride it.
I have brought a good number of saddles back from the brink and the only option her would be to have it re-covered as the leather is highly degraded... as soon as you put any load on it there is a great likelihood that the leather will separate from the rivets.