I almost khatfull'd a saddle. I've got an old Ross womens 10-speed with cool blue-to-white fade in the bar wraps that I thought would look more awesome than Crockett & Tubbs while sporting a white saddle.



The test subject came from a dept. store bike that had been stored outside for many years. The foam was water-logged and when I attempted to remove the cover from the foam, the foam seperated from the plastic of the saddle base.



the first thing I did was completly remove the foam and stomp on it to remove the water trapped within. Then I placed it on the dehumidifier in my basement for a couple of days to dry it out. I tried to remove the old cover from the foam, but it was tearing all apart, so I decided to try to attach the vinyl over the existing old cover since it was mainly smooth except for the rather large tear in the back.



cut a piece of vinyl to fit



sprayed on the glue and let it sit to get tacky



The end result looks kinda ok from the top, but my choice of vinyl was bad. This was felt-backed or backed with something similar, the only cloth vinyl I saw at the store was marine cloth backed, so I thought I'd try this one. A mistake, the grain was shallow and I scuffed it up a bit when I attached the saddle mounting hardware



Here's the underside compaired to the finish of another saddle. I didn't like the look of white on a black plastic base. Kinda ok from the topside, not so much from below.

Over all, it didn't work, whether it was trying to put a new cover over the old one, or a bad choice of cheap vinyl, inexperience trying to do this, or a combination of all three. For an unbiased opinion I placed this saddle on the bike I had intended it for along with an old blue plastic saddle and asked my wife which one she liked best. She said to go with the old blue one, and that the white looked like cheap nasty old golf shoes.

What can I say, he makes it look easy.

Wow, I'm a verb again...

Yeah, I had flirted with the flannel/fiber backed vinyls but I just didn't see them holding up through time. The marine vinyls work out well. Remember, I did mine 5 times to get it to look like it did...practice makes perfect! There's a first time for everything right? You have a Jo-Ann around? Let me know and I'll point you to a vinyl. You have a good base to practice on there...give 'er another shot!

Hancock Fabrics was having a 40% off sale on vinyl through yesterday so I picked up half yards of several of the Whisper vinyl colors and a couple more "glossy" marine vinyls. You want something "Brooksy" looking, I can do that now!

A much better verb than some I can think of

Yes, the first place I went as Fields, that's where I got the marine vinyl, but it was not very stretchy. Then I went to Jo-Anns, but only had a choice of Marine vs. this weak stuff. Their marine vinyl felt like it might be a bit stretchy-er than Fields, but I wasn't sure.

This was actually my 2nd attempt. The first went very badly, I didn't have enough stretch at points. Maybe it was because I cut the fabric too close while still working with it, but the main problem I encountered with both of these was having to work fairly fast and not really knowing how to gather/flatten the extra vinyl after making the bend. I'll try it again, but I think this time with black, it'll be more forgiving on the underside.

Well, I'm recovering a NOS saddle for another C&Ver...brown to white...probably tonight. I'm going to try a different technique on the curves and folds. I'll let you know how it works out...

You know you've made your mark when your name becomes a verb.

That puts me up in the league of: Google, Xerox, Hoover (some older people Hoover the floor), Rollerblade (inline skating is commonly referred to as Rollerblading), etc.

The ultimate is the verb/noun combination, for instance: Xerox - tradename commonly used as both noun (Here's the Xerox of that page.) and verb (Hey, can you Xerox that for me?).

Ok, back to the real world for me

And maybe we can carry it forward: "I tried to restore the bike, but in the end I just BigPolishJimmied it."

I would love to Khatfull my Simplex components soon (polish them to a level that I can check for food stuck in my teeth with)

Nice job

-Collin-

Khatfull inspired me to get out the Mother's metal polish and spiff up the Nervar crankset on the Peugeot before I put it back together. My paltry work pales in comparison to his though.
I have a saddle that I might try to recover at some point also, so these "how to" threads are pretty good. Thanks for posting them.

sounds like a good time, but you can get cheap white saddles for like $10. carry on.

While true...

1) Yes, it is fun and satisfying.
2) New cheap $10 saddles are usually not period looking, comfortable, or durable.
3) Most C&Vers have a reduce/reuse/recycle mentality, just because a cover is torn or worn doesn't mean the saddle is done...call it "saddle maintenance".
4) In my case I wanted to keep the bike as original as possible, try to find a NOS Fujita saddle, much less a "Compy Boy".

Carry on.

Well the reason I bother with any of the junk bikes or junk bike parts I mess with is simple. If I trash out a dept-store quality bike because I don't know what I'm doing, no harm, no foul. It's good practice. The other thing is that I enjoy the challenge. It's stupid easy to chuck anything that breaks and get a new one, fixing it however is another story. I work with computers all day, problem solving is my favorite and most frustrating/rewarding part of the job. I see old bikes as puzzles, tear them down, put them back together, that you can ride them again and that's fun too is just icing on the cake.

All that having been said, I have no problem what-so-ever in buying nice things for my good bikes.

Jimmy: I totally agree. If you look at the junk in my garage, it's mostly, well, junk. Nothing better than a mid-range Japanese bike-boom offering. But they're mine and I have fun with them. The rest of the world just doesn't understand people like us.

I lol'd, or should I say Doohickied?

What in God's name have I started?

Am I one of you? I have lot's of junk, but mine's all upper-mid to outdated high end junk ...which is the NEW 'junk' these days. The best part is, that description applies to just about everything I own, not just bikes.

You didn't start it. Drew did.


He just doesn't know it.

I used Drew as a verb in my last craigslist post... laughing quietly to myself rocking back in forth bathed the harsh light of my crt monitor.

Compared to the verbs my wife calls me, he's doing quite well...

Niagara Cycle sells a stretch-on saddle cover for $2. Soon enough, I'm going to use one to cover up blemishes or rips on a saddle on a bike I flip. I'm not sure, but I might feel dishonest doing it.