Cycling UK Forum

hello,

Could anyone recommend a business which will re-cover ( to a good standard ) a favourite saddle ?

I have at least two Selle Flite saddles which are worn and out and I would be happy to pay for them to be re-covered with a suitable material.

These have been my favourites for many years and I would prefer to repair but I don't want to try this myself !

many thanks

Anthony

Can't comment if is a fancy one with all so!rts of panels and differing materials but if its a simple Flite I found that good old fashioned DiY was fine. The thought of oaying thd pricd of z new one horrifys me! One old leather jacket in a flavour to taste, some contsct adhesive snd jobs done. Charity shops for the jacket. Done half a dozen.

Brooks offer an excellent refurbishment service for their own saddles - had a titanium saddle refurbished with a new organic leather top.

You could contact Wrights W5 of this parish, he knows a lot about saddles

Had you have bought a Selle Italia Flite 'Full Kevlar Seat' (FKS) ... it would never have worn out. My point being ... you maybe easily get one off eBay. the Kevlar covered ones last almost indefinitely.

But really, refurbishing an old Flite is not very clever. Do your homework and move on to something new but with a similar shape. I switched successfully from a Flite to a Prologo Scratch.

Our favorite saddle model is long out of production, but we let our saddles live through 10th by now life or something by covering them with cloth tape. In the US we use Gorilla brand and in Europe we would have presumably used Tessa. Obviously this might not quite be up to the 'standard'. Some people restore their saddles covering them with vinyl upholstery fabric and I even acquired some, but I never got myself to use it - the tape has been so much easier.

Sorry for dire spelling above. Spell check disabled and touch screen dodgy and user lazy.
Recovered a Turbo last month. Took about 30 minutes max. Wasn't my first. Underneath it is neater than the old one and now it is a nice brown not scabby white.
To me it is daft not to do so. Each to their own.

How about a good leather worker or re-upholsterer, OR even the Repair Shop on BBC TV.

Hope this helps.

mattsccm wrote:Sorry for dire spelling above. Spell check disabled and touch screen dodgy and user lazy.
Recovered a Turbo last month. Took about 30 minutes max. Wasn't my first. Underneath it is neater than the old one and now it is a nice brown not scabby white.
To me it is daft not to do so. Each to their own.

Can you give a step by step guide.

What glue staples etc?

Did you replace the foam?

Cheers James

I've done it - glove leather from ebay, repositionable contact adhesive and 15 bulldog clips, various sizes.

Remove the old leather, peeling and cutting with a razor blade to separate it from the foam.
Rub with 100 grit (ish) sandpaper, especially the glueing area underneath.
Experiment with the leather to find the bit that bets fits the nose of the saddle - this has to stretch most. Usually there is somewhere on the leather that seems more pliable and stretchy.
Trim the leather to leave around 2cm extra all round.
Coat the leather and saddle with the contact adhesive and leave to dry per instructions.
Do the nose first, reposition until you get it right. Secure with bulldog clips.
Stretch and do the back next, so it's smooth and tight the length of the saddle.
Now stretch and do front to back along the sides. You might need to trim the excess as you work to get it to stick nice and flat underneath.
Check for glue on the top - remove with solvent if necessary.
Leave 24 hours, then remove the clips and tidy underneath with a stanley knife.

There were posts on retrobike.co.uk a while ago on how to do it. Worth a search.

Jesus … this post is so CTC.

There's plenty of these saddles on eBay.

No, the 100% dyed-in-the-wool CTC answer would be to give details for Tony Colegrave, a former Brooks employee who, BITD, advertised his saddle repair and rejuvination services in Cycle (or more likely one of its predecessors). Hasn't had a mention for a little more than eight years on these boards and may have retired, moved or even joined the choir celestial.

Tony Colegrave
Well House
Hastings Road
Northiam
Rye
TN31 6HY

01797 252177

Valbrona wrote:Jesus … this post is so CTC.

There's plenty of these saddles on eBay.

Valbrona wrote:.....But really, refurbishing an old Flite is not very clever.....

IMHO what is definitely not very clever is telling people something of which you have no experience is 'not very clever'.

On top of that, saddles are very personal things and even synthetic saddles change over time; a new saddle that is the same model invariably feels slightly different from an older one. As for going to a different model of saddle it can be a complete crap shoot. I've known folk descend into a kind of 'saddle hell' where they can't find a new saddle that is similar enough and they can't find another example of the same saddle that works for them either. By comparison with the other options recovering an old saddle is a pretty safe bet. Recovering two old saddles as the OP wants to do makes twice as much sense as that.

cheers

Tony Colegrave is still advertising in the current V-CC yearbook