I wouldn't do anything to the tension bolt; or at least, not yet.

I would first reshape the top. To do that, you have to get it really wet; you want the leather to absorb as much water as it can absorb, without letting any leak out Consider: if you soak it in a bucket of water, the water will turn brown. Trust me, I know this will happen. Whatever that substance is, that is coming out of the leather and going into the water, to turn it brown, it's something that you don't want to take out of the leather. So to make sure it stays in the leather, try to only add water, a little at a time, until the leather won't soak up any more. Let that water sit in the leather for an hour or two so it reaches an even distribution. Once that's done, you can reshape the leather with your hands. Ball up some old newspapers and stuff them inside the saddle, pressing the newspapers into the correct shape for the inside of the saddle, while squeezing the skirts together as much as possible. You should be able to get the saddle back to approximately its factory shape.

Then fold up another piece of newspaper into the longest possible strip, about 2" wide, and wrap that around the narrow part of the saddle and hold it with a piece of tape. That should be enough to hold the shape of the saddle until the leather dries; but it would be a good idea to periodically check on the shape as it dries and correct anything that seems to be going wrong.

When the leather dries, it will be harder than it is now. At this point, if the shackle bolt in the nose is loose, tighten it up enough that it doesn't rattle.

The above treatment is pretty radical, and will make your saddle into something pretty different from what it is now. I expect it will be better, but that's for you to decide. Some saddles, when reshaped in this manner, will hold the 'new' shape for a good long time; others return to the old shape pretty soon.

....the other thing you can do (and which I do whenever the skirts flare unacceptably on a leather saddle that is still in decent shape) is to punch and lace it. You need a leather punch and a flat braided shoelace, preferably not a cotton one, but something more durable. Pick a color that more or less matched the leather, like black or brown. www.bikeforums.net&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiA6vPS3-DcAhU5FzQIHUzCAYIQrQIoBDABegQIAhAM&biw=1680&bih=944]Read some of the other threads on the pro's and con's.[/url]

I've always liked the results, but I like a hard saddle. I've punched and laced a couple of Sella Anatomica saddles right out of the box, because it was the only way I could get the things to stop squeaking.



This guy used a round lace, which IMO is a mistake. If you do it, you want the laces to lie flat.

I may be mistaken, but as I recall a lot of Ideale saddles assume that shape as they age. My advice is to listen to rhm - he knows saddles.

I asked a similar question not too long ago, though my situation was different:

What about backing off the nose screw on this saddle?

Lazy, procrastinating SOB that I am, I've so far only backed of the tension bolt a bit. The saddle sits. [MENTION=424205]Salamandrine[/MENTION] described (with photos) how he used Durham's Water Putty to reshape a Brooks Pro. I am planning to go one better, as I have a nicely shaped Ideal 90 Rebour. I was going to make both inside and outside casts, then use [MENTION=73614]rhm[/MENTION]'s method of fully wetting the saddle.

While it worked, and I was able to target and change one specific part of the saddle only, the inside mold was kind of a pain.

If I were to do it again, I'd probably try an outside mold, and then stuff the inside with newspaper, or a sandbag or something. IOW do sort of what RHM suggests. A vacuum bag set up would be awesome, but most people don't have that. I guess you could make an inside mold in three parts that clip together somehow. I considered it.

What I decided recently is that I only like Brooks Pros when they are still fairly new, and haven't got sit bone dents yet, but I digress.

Another thing I noticed is that all modern Brooks saddles have 5mm thick leather. Did it used to be thicker on some models?

I still remember being directed to dumpster a whole big box of Ideale leather saddles at my LBS job in about 1982. Zero demand at the time. The horror.

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