Rhm #34
 

A shout-out to Rudi for my new RHM #34 saddle. The leather is incredibly thick, but somewhat soft, and feels broken in already. Thanks Rudi!

http://davidnewtonguitars.squarespac...les/Rudi34.JPG

Looks really good!

Glad to hear it, Dave! I look forward to hearing how it holds up.

Awesome! I'm riding my RHM #30 almost every day on my commuter bike; it's very comfortable and turning a rich shade of brown as time goes on.

^^ You are supposed to ride with your pants on, Neal.......

nice to see this from the side please-when you have time.
looks nice,Rudi-great work

Mike

Who says?

I thought "ride free ball or die" was the New Hampshire state motto, not Massachusetts.

That's not the version they put on the license plates.

How did this thread get derailed so fast?

Here is the side view Mike requested:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-D...912/rhm34e.JPG

And just for the heck of it, a side view of rhm#35, also being ridden in the Lone Star State:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-S...912/rhm35c.JPG

Ok, please tell me what a RHM saddle is. Is it a reconstructed Brooks?

thanks, Brian

RHM saddles are very rare,
they were handmade and very collectable.

Rudi (rhm) seems to find them from time to time.

if you ask nicely he may just part with one...

Looks a little like a canelloni I made the other day - delicious, but I wouldn't want to do a century sitting on it.

(Which is my waggish way of saying, yes, just what the heck is an RHM?)

looks great with brass rivets.

I have to get one of those rare seats one day.

Great work Rudi. So you used the seal in your avatar as stamp? Real nice! Where's it from?

I heard they found a stock of 'em in a garage on the Island....prolly just folk lore is all.

Hey, I didn't get a Raleigh International with mine!

I had to save a lot of box tops for that.

Is it true they're made of dolphin skin?

Yes, exactly! Any old leather saddle, regardless whether it was a Brooks, Ideale, Wrights, Persons, Selle, etc. They get to the point where they need new leather, so I put new leather on them. I haven't been doing this very long, so I've only done 35 so far. The result is a recycled frame with new handmade top. You could say RHM stand s for recycled, hand made. Or rock hard material. Or my initials. I'm flexible on this!

My current avatar is silver coin from the Greek city of Taras, Roman Tarentum, in southern Italy. The one in my avatar is from maybe about 400 BC. The town was supposedly named for this legendary figure Taras. I don't know his legend but I'm guessing it involved a dolphin. I like the design! So I copied it -- actually I copied an earlier one-- for this saddle stamp.


No. I have been unable, so far, to arrange for a steady supply of dolphin hide. Nor have I got moose, giraffe, wildebeest, or... well, really, anything interesting. I have been using cow hide from Mexico.

This time of year we cyclers in New Hampshire like to change the motto to "Ride Freeze or Die."

I've been riding RHM #10 all winter while trying not to freeze and die.

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...C0AB12F6DA.jpg

[MENTION=73614]rhm[/MENTION] This one!

I need to take an updated pic of RHM #30 . The color has darkened considerably, and it continues to be super comfortable.

I'd love to see how it changed over time.

They do change, especially with exposure to moisture.

I just finished #102 a couple days ago, a Wrights/Brooks narrow frame, the leather patterned after a 1959 Brooks Swallow I worked on a few years ago. For something new, I tried freehand embossing a swallow design on the top.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Q...201_115927.jpghttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-D...201_115934.jpg

As you can see, the color is uneven at this stage; for some reason the nose is a little darker than the rest. I don't know why that is, but I expect it will all even out over time. Within a couple years, with use, it will turn a rich dark reddish brown.

I'll be posting it on the 'for sale' forum as soon as I can remember the highest number I can think of.

Rudi,

Sweet!!!!! Very nice! Did you attach the middle underside with an "apron" (???) like Brooks does with their Swallow?

It's called an apron?

I think Brooks has done this a couple different ways over the years. I have in my hands, at the moment, a Swallow dated C60 on which the leather has two tabs that meet under the center of the saddle, where they are riveted to a small steel plate (about 1 ¹/4" x 1¹/8"). So this saddle is done the same way, except that the plate is copper, rather than steel, but you can't see it anyway.

I was guessing as to what to call it. "Tabs" sounds a lot better then "apron." :p

I don't know all the correct terminology either, Bob! I may have made that term up. Whatever. Here's a photo of the underside of the saddle:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-V...2019.32.44.jpg