seat issue
 

hi all. the seat i have is like riding on a rock even though its soft . has any one cut a leather seat like the Selle An-Atomica. i have a few seats and an razor. any ideas?

Not quite sure what you're asking. Are you wanting to cut up a leather saddle? What saddle do you have now?

I wouldn't. Leather seats with cut-outs are starting to appear on the market. To my eyes there isn't enough of a cut out in any of them to justify the gesture. Probably just trying to cash in on the current affection for anatomic saddles. Leather saddles can be comfortable without cut-outs. It doesn't sound like your problem is the lack of a cut-out anyway, you need to break in the saddle and that is a different issue altogether.

H

how long does it take to break in a leather saddle? how do you do it?

You mentioned the Selle Anatomica, it's reported to be comfortable out of the box ( my wife agrees, she has one ) The Brooks seems to vary quite a bit, some like it out of the box others may take a few hundred miles. YMMV

You can't tell how a saddle feels by looking at it. Try riding one and you'll feel the difference. I've got both standard B-17 and B-17 Imperial saddles and I can feel a big difference between the two, especially on long hilly routes.

It should be comfortable out of the box and get better with age as the leather conforms to your contours. Use a treatment like Proofide, Sno-Seal or Obenauf's LP initially to add some water repellency, then recondition with the same (lightly) twice a year.