Great thread. Here's a new challenge: a saddle frame with a pad that can't be salvaged.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y18...o/IMAG0452.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y18...o/IMAG0449.jpg

An old Selle Italia Flite Ti. I'd had it recovered by a local shoe repair place a few years ago, but that tore in a crash and when I took off the leather, the foam just came off in chunks. As you can see, I've cleaned it up but was wondering if you had any ideas about what to use for a pad under the leather. I was thinking that felt might work. Any thoughts?

Possible idea for padding...
old thin roll-up exercise/yoga mat? Might be a little thick.

I'm in a similar situation. I tried to recover my Flite saddle but apparently I am not as adept as most of you. I botched the recovery job by not laying down the lether flat and it immediately bonded with the adhesive. When I tried to pull up and reposition the leather it took the padding with it. :(

Not sure if normal felt will work. I could be wrong, but I think the glue will seep in too much and not provide a good bonding surface for the felt. The original foam padding on the Flite was not nearly as porous as felt. In addition, it was thicker in parts such as the tail and almost sculpted near the front sides. I've been wondering if there is some kind of foam which could be sprayed on and then sculpted/sanded into shape before applying the new leather.

I had thought about spray foam insulation but rejected it, thinking it would expand too much. Maybe if I sprayed it on, let it expand and dry and then tried to shave it down?

The other thing I was considering was just covering it with a thicker leather and just let it be minimalist.

I've only done one Flite, but had the same troubles to some extent. They seem to have used a very strong adhesive, making it hard to 'filet' the cover off without taking chunks of padding with it. In my case, the chunks were small enough that functionally I was able to get the job done, but the finished surface isn't as smooth as I'd like. As I mentioned on another thread, I wonder if using a heat gun, or soaking the cover with scalding water might help release the adhesive. I didn't think of either of those until I was done, so they remain untested theories, at least by me.

I think the yoga mat would be way too thick, and spray foam sets up hard. Seems like it would just crush when you sat on it and not have the memory needed for actual cushioning. Somewhere back toward the start of this thread I believe Khatfull mentioned a particular kind of foam to use. How you'd sculpt it to anything like the original factory shape, which tapers down to a virtual knife-edge, is beyond me.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7163/6...47365823_z.jpg

Going to dig this thread up because I feel like there in no sense in starting a new one.

I am about to start recovering 2 maybe 3 saddles. I have a 36x54 piece of bright white marine vinyl coming. The first one is an SLR knock off and should be fairly straight forward. The second one is an Bianchi branded San Marco exactly like somebody posted earlier in the thread. It shaped like a Concor (which happens to be the possible number 3). My question is has anybody tried trimming the skirts off of a Concor and if so what were the results? If not, is this a bad idea?

Anybody else done this lately? Post some pictures, I love DIY stuff like this.

How thick is the vinyl? I've had good success using thin leather but it seems like it would be tough to get the nose right with material that was thick and/or lacking in flexibility.

I imagine its going to be thicker than would be ideal because its OEM from a fairly high end boat. I will know more when I have it in hand but I still feel pretty confident I can make it work.

Thanks for the tutorial. I'm going to have to do it. I've got an Avocet 02 that needs a new cover. I found one tutorial on the web, but that used marine vinyl and staples. No can do. Yours looks good. Now I just have to get to a Goodwill and find that nice black leather jacket.

What would be the purpose of it? Seems to me that would rob the Concor of its sexy curves.

I have re-covered a Concor (pics way back in this thread) and it was the back end that required the most patience. The nose required some tight tucking, but that's true of most saddles. Concors do require a pretty big piece of material because of the long skirts.

I bought a green Army surplus sleeping pad and cut it down for a cafe' racer seat on my motorcycle, then shaped it and covered it with vinyl. It worked great.
It will also work on a saddle, as will a modern exercise mat, try to find a used on at the second hand store, they are expensive new.
Glue it on well first then sand the foam to shape it. Use weldwood contact cement, spray upholstry glue isn't strong enough.
Covering with thick vinyl is a pain around the nose, it can be done, but not without folds. Maybe a heat-gun will make it stretch enough, but I didn't try that.
I would use thin leather.

Well the vinyl showed up today and it turns out its got a felt backing. I did heat it a bit and that provided quite a bit of stretch so I decided to give it a go on a saddle that was pretty much toast anyway... Complete and udder failure. The foam on the saddle started to separate from the base and the vinyl started to separate from the felt around the nose. This giant piece of vinyl might wind up as a shop apron. Back to the drawing boards for me.

Hey guys, I'm back from winter hiatus! I'm happy to see that you folks are giving your torn saddles a second wind.

I did a Flite back in the fall and wasn't too happy with how it turned out. The foam pulled up pretty bad in some spots so I took some sandpaper on a block to try to take down some of the unevenness. I had to take down a good amount before I decided I couldn't take anymore away without turning it into a weight-weenie/hardcore chamois-only saddle. After covering it, a lot of the divots were still visible under the leather. This was on a Flite I picked up at the flea market for $5 so I wasn't too worried, I'll probably eBay it soon b/c I don't like how flite's feel so much.

My friend tried an SLR and got the same results. He wasn't happy and is currently researching replacement foams. Yoga mat and some memory type foams were on the top of the idea list so when we get started on that, I'll update this thread!

On a good note, someone gave me a well used, badly worn San Marco Rolls to try to save. I wish I took some pics! It had holes in the leather on every corner, cracks in the leather throughout, rust on the rails, and a small bend on the rear trim plate. What a challenge!

My best riding saddle so far has been a San Marco Squadra, the Rolls' successor. This was the extra push to try and do a good job on this Rolls to make it my permanent riding saddle. I have a Squadra in black in great condition - I'm not touching it!

Removing the leather took a long time. Since it was cracked all over, it came out in tiny little pieces. A heatgun REALLY helped in keeping the foam together. There was still divots so I went over it with the sanding-block. Plus, a big chunk was removed from the nose from a crash. Overall, I did alot of shaping to keep it from looking horrible. The ending shape actually came out good, I flattened the top of the saddle quite a bit.

The stretching was the regular thing, spray adhesive on top, stretch, heatgun, Woodweld underneath, trim. The underside of the nose was different than other saddles I've done. It was just flat underneath, no tucking the leather under-and-up like a Turbo. I used some good stretching on the nose's sides and just folded the front and Woodwelded the rest on top of the stretch leather. It came out good.

As for the rear trim plate, I totally destroyed the original rivets removing the trim, forcing me to find a replacement solution. A quick trip to the local hardware store yeilded a very nice and simple solution: brass nails and flat speed nuts! The head of the nails were a nice shape. They fit perfectly in the existing holes. The speed nuts slid on as tight as they went. I trimmed them down and coated them with a gob of 5-minute epoxy gel from the .99 store.

Overall, I'm very happy with the results. It was the most challenging, time-consuming recover yet but I think it's my favorite! It feels nice because of the flat top and the leather matches my bar-tape. I'm a happy camper.

Oh, and some pics:
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f6...o/4f140cb7.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f6...o/2eaa50fe.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f6...o/3df747d7.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f6...o/e71e7ff9.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f6...o/66b296d7.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f6...o/b0a21a65.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f6...o/c3217832.jpg

Wow, that Paramount's a real stunner!

What kinda crazy fat tires are those?

Thanks, they are SomaFab B-line's ,650B.

I'm very impressed by your work (beautiful), your explanation (very clear) and that you shared it here (very kind).

Thank you :thumb:

Hmmm.

Well, first, very cool thread. Though I am quite pleased with my fleet of fairly new Terry men's saddles, I luv the DIY of it and still have every old saddle I never threw away cuz-how-could-u-hoard-it-if-u-throw-it-away.

How 'bout maybe synthetic chamois as a "cushiony" layer underneath the leather?

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=242483

Chamois could smooth flaws in the foam and it's thin enough that it could be cut and glued together in layers for shaping and additional cushioning. I have a piece that is better than a decade old - maybe 12 to 15 years - that is now starting to harden. I have never used the sheet... just cut fabric washers out of a corner to protect my frames where I attach parts to the frame.

Alternatively, if you can get a large enough bolt of it... maybe molefoam. It's thicker than moleskin and, perhaps, too rigid for the purpose, but certainly cushiony. I had a huge bolt of it that finally ran out... I used it to cut and layer over basic arch supports to make custom orthotics.

Edit: I do not describe the small pieces you can buy at retail. I once got my hands on a wholesale type box that was prolly 12 or 18 inches x 6 feet.

Followed the tutorial at the start of this thread by THEJAPINO. What a great way to reuse an old saddle! This is my result. I bought a scrap of leather from a local Tandy leather shop for $2.00.

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u...e/IMG_0325.jpg

More fine results; good thread. The speed nuts on that Rolls were an inspired solution.

Now someone just needs to tell me how to fix the rail I busted on my Concor, shortly after I successfully re-covered it! I'm afraid it's a goner.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7186/6...b2720d4f_z.jpg

What about reproducing original finish and lettering? This is a Turbo on my Bianchi. You can barely make out the end of "Bianchi" in this shot. The "Turbo" scripts on the back are still visible.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=245669

I've got an absolutely mint saddle from a mid Eighties Stumpjumper. The rails broke and part of the plastic base went with it. I was thinking about salvaging the cover for another Stumpy saddle with a bad cover.

For replacing foam, how about using yoga or camping mat foam (as suggested earlier) and shaping it with a hot wire cutter?

http://www.vatsaas.org/rtv/construct...ireCutter.aspx

You could move the cutter along a track, and place the saddle/seatpost in an adjustable angle clamp. Then by checking and recording the alignment of saddle to cutter you could create the same angles for both sides and for future saddles.

For applying the foam, maybe use a heat gun to soften it then press the saddle base into it. Maybe set it on something that would shift/deform to help hold the shape (I'm thinking sand).

Also, I wonder, if you had a source for saddle rails, could you print the saddle base in ABS with a 3D printer (like RepRap)?
You could print a mesh form and add carbon fiber for a light strong base.


Edit:
As I think more about it, fiberglass and carbon fiber may be good for reinforcing some areas, but aramids would probably be better as the primary material. And if you were going to 'print' more than one identical saddle it would probably be best to print a mold and either make a set of guides for shaping the foam or use some kind of injection molded foam. Or you could try something like the playground material that's made from chopped up rubber, or a cork latex mix like is used for some shoes.