This is the original saddle from my 1984 Centurion Le Mans 12 bike, and it's cracked and brittle. I found an "instructables" on how to remove/replace the leather/vinyl. I bought upholstery "leather" from a fabric store, with no guarantee about outdoor use. I ended up going to Beaverton Auto Upholstery and bought marine vinyl in "Oxblood", which matches the headtube color exactly.

Anyway, I've removed the 1/4" staples and pulled back the leather from the rear of the saddle towards the front. I see the leather, as it bends over the nose of the saddle, looks to be tucked Under the rails (see photos). Should I just gently pull it out from under there? It seems tight.

The idea is to preserve the original cover, flatten it out to use as a template pattern for the new piece of vinyl. I'm using headliner adhesive to adhere it.

I'd appreciate any thoughts abought how to get the "nose section" undone. Thanks!
Selle Royal Italy Saddle by velocivixen, on Flickr
Nose Selle Royal Saddle by velocivixen, on Flickr
Selle Royal After Cover Pulled Back by velocivixen, on Flickr
Interior "Leather" by velocivixen, on Flickr
Marine Vinyl by velocivixen, on Flickr

I had a similar problem with a Vetta TriShock this past winter - needed to get the saddle rail out of the pan. I tried all sorts of things that failed and 'as a last resort' I just placed it on the hot wood stove for a few minutes. That warmed the plastic just enough to do the trick. I bent the saddle over the edge of the bench and the rail popped out of the nose easily. It looks to me like you'll need to do something like that to get the rail out of that nose pocket, then remove the old cover.

I've done 5 saddles now but not with vinyl - only with leather - and all have come out nicely. NOTE: any defects in the foam may telegraph thru the new cover so fill or repair them somehow if you can. Been there, was not successful.

I've had very good results (easy to work with and durable) with 3M spray adhesive and Weldwood contact cement (the small bottle from Ace hardware). Good luck with yours.

Oh, I've not tried a saddle with the slight depression in the center as on yours. I wonder how to make that work?

Edit: One nice aspect of working in leather is that, after getting it soaking wet, I could stretch and shape it over the saddle then let it dry that way. Made the final installation easier. I've no idea if you can pre-shape vinyl.

[MENTION=360474]Prowler[/MENTION] - Thank you for your response. So what I understand you saying is that the rails, at the nose, are pressed into place. At least on you saddle?

I have an old food steamer I could try (carefully). I will post results for the next person.

Following.
I've recovered a few saddles all in marine vinyl, but I haven't encountered one that had the nose fabric tucked underneath the rails.

I think I understand what you're asking. I would just warm up that area in the nose with a blow dryer, and then use a needle nose pliers to pull the current cover out. If it's really under there, then I'd use a utility knife or exacto and cut the leather/vinyl as close to the rails as possible. There's no good reason to get all of that out of there, as long as you have enough inside surface to adhere the new vinyl when you wrap it under. I would definitely not do anything that would loosen the attachment of the rails to the plastic pan of the saddle.

For the underneath part, I'd consider using good contact cement in a few key places, as it's likely to hold tighter. You'll have to do some massaging of the vinyl on the underside to get it to bunch up properly (lots of little folds), and it may not look perfect, but it's out of sight. Use heat and a blade to get the current cover off, and try to avoid pulling up chunks of the foam. If you're using good quality vinyl, those missing chunks will be very apparent when you get the new cover on.

I know there might be a budget issue causing it, but does recovering a saddle with vinyl material instead of leather really worth it? Never mind the effort it takes to do so.
Vinyl might be durable and be able to take a lot of moisture without damage, but the material does not breath and will usually cause "hot spots" at your sit bones on longer rides. Not a pleasant experience to have, especially if you are miles away from home on a long ride.

I didn't think to recover in leather. I don't even know if I like the feel of the saddle since I've never ridden it. Figured I'd keep it inexpensive & if I ended up not liking from a comfort perspective then not lots lost.

I'm sure others will chime in here with their tips, but I've recovered several saddles with thin leather, regardless whether leather was original or vinyl, the leather works better for my purposes. "But isn't leather expensive?" Yes - but I've always got a box full on hand. I go to thrift stores and locate large leather jackets and can usually pick up a crappy one for five bucks or so. That becomes my "donor" and the leather that I don't use gets stored in the aforementioned box until I need some for whatever future crafty project might come up.

Hey VV. I've been away all day wrenching bikes. Yes, on my Vetta saddles, and on several others I've seen, the rail is a single piece of rod bent into a sharp curve which fits into a retangular pocket in the nose - past of the plastic saddle pan. Very tight fit as they don't want that to pop out while riding. Heat made the pan flexible enough that I could pop the rail nose out of that pocket.

However, so one else brings up an interesting idea: does that bit of vinyl tucked into the pocket with the rail nose help keep it all tight and immobile? Would getting that vinyl out make the fit too loose? Think carefully. Cutting away the excess and leaving the rest may be the best move.

[MENTION=360474]Prowler[/MENTION] - good ideas. Even if I made the plastic pliable, my hands aren't strong. I probably wouldn't trust the saddle either after that. The thickness of the leather is about .76 mm, marine vinyl .88mm, interior faux leather .68mm.
[MENTION=201510]AZORCH[/MENTION] - yeah the Oregon Leather Co. (https://oregonleatherco.com) in downtown Portland has bins of various scrap leather to buy reasonably. If this recovering goes well, I could always go there to check out scraps for other saddles.

Think I'll use an exacto knife to cut around the nose part. As an aside I bought an Avocet Touring II from a 40 y/o bike shop going out of business - color is similar to Brooks "Honey" so I installed it onto the Centurion. Looks nice.

Regarding the cost of real leather, I went to a shop that repairs saddles and leather goods, and they had large piles of scrap leather in dozens of colors, various thicknesses, etc. A small piece just big enough for a single saddle was about $3-5. The pieces are all irregular, and it's pretty hit or miss, but the search is half the fun. People have also described buying cheap real-leather jackets and skirts at thrift stores, and cutting them up.

The good thing about real leather is that it will stretch and conform to the saddle shape, and seems to need less adhesive to stay well adhered to the plastic base.

This might or might not be helpful, but I ran across this How It's Made segment about bicycle seats. It shows how they attach the rail to the base at bout 4:40:

[MENTION=114799]Jeff Wills[/MENTION] - that's an interesting video! Thanks.

1) I wouldn't bother with a saddle with a gouged out nose. But you could remove the old padding and replaced it with a sheet of dense, closed-cell foam.
2) If I'm going to the trouble of recovering, it's gotta be with leather-- it's more pliable, and when you're done you have leather instead of plastic.