Originally Posted by
Chombi1
Bending back a saddle frame straight would not be easy as I found out just trying to flex the too wide apart rails on my Brooks Pro to try and install it on a seatpost clamp the rails are just a little bit over a rail's diameter too wide apart and I'm still having a difficult time with a C clamp to squeeze them together, let alone trying to get them sqeezed together enough to "cold set them to a narrower distance from each other.
Only real way to fix such would be to remove the leather cover an clamp the frame on to a bench vise so you can get "heavy" tools on it to bend it back straight. Some heat should help......
Yes indeed, they are hard to bend. The one I took off, in the first post, I believe I have straightened it by using a small sledge hammer on an anvil. But I'll do some careful measurement before I use it.
If your rails are too wide, I can think of two things you might try.
1, just to get it into the saddle, try pulling the rails together with a hose clamp
2, place two pieces of scrap lumber, like 2x4's or something, about three inches apart, and put the back of the saddle over the gap, leather down. The ends of the rails should be right about at the edges of the lumber. Hit the cantle plate with a hammer directly between the rails. As you put a little bit of curvature into the middle of the cantle plate, the rails will come together. It won't take much.