danielbmartin

I bobbled a dismount and fell, hard. The saddle was damaged and I hope to repair it because it is old, broken-in, and comfortable.

A seatbag, securely attached to the trailing edge of the saddle, hit the ground. The saddle itself did not hit the ground and is without blemish.

The saddle and its strong wire mount became separated. There is no damage to the wire mount and no damage to the plastic skeleton of the saddle. Those two pieces just snap together and (in principle) could be reconnected but I'm unable to do that.

How are these saddles assembled in the factory? Is the plastic stretched? Is it heated enough to soften it? Some other technique?

I have good photos but this site doesn't allow newbies to post images.

Please advise.

Daniel B. Martin

Iride01 

It does allow newbies with some initiative to simply write the URL in the plain text part of their post. If the spam filters don't let the full URL to go through, then remove the https:// and maybe change the "." to " dot ". Don't attempt to use the image or link tools.

You will have to upload the pic's to a hosting site. If that site uses a Share With, then use the URL that it might generate to post.

Oh...

Welcome to BF! thick skin sometimes useful. We aren't as bad as we bark.

rydabent

Maybe if you have help, the two of you could stretch or deform the plastic and rail enough to get it back in place.

danielbmartin

I created an imgur.com account and posted the images there. As an imgur newbie I may have done this clumsily.

A thick skin will help a rider who falls off his bicycle!

imgurDOTcomSLASHQoLfILW
imgurDOTcomSLASHqZ3k162
imgurDOTcomSLASHWLqUu0q
imgurDOTcomSLASH73nIoAq
imgurDOTcomSLASHimFAO3y
imgurDOTcomSLASHJFLESxo


Daniel B. Martin

fietsbob

Bottom line what is your time worth / vs just buying a new (or'take off' *) saddle?

*bike shop term for the saddle the new bike came with, but bike buyer chose something else..

danielbmartin

Cost is not the issue. This saddle is broken-in and comfortable.

Again, cost is not the issue. I've been working on bikes (not professionally) for a long time and have accumulated plenty of parts. There are six used-but-good saddles in my collection of "treasures" so a serviceable replacement saddle costs me nothing. Nevertheless I really like this one and hope to resurrect it.

.

fietsbob

So it's Leather ? a Brooks ? willing to learn how to set copper rivets?

danielbmartin

It is leather but not a Brooks. I've ridden Brooks and found them too darn hard. Yes, I can set rivets but that won't be needed in this instance.

.

fietsbob

6 more posts to go.. while we guess ..

rccardr 

I have experienced this same problem. The seat base is too rigid to allow you to stretch it a little to get the rail back in place.
I used a hair dryer set on high to heat the base up in the middle and rear end, and with a friend holding it steady was able to deflect the base just enough to pop it back in place.
Afterwards, pressed it in the opposite direction until the base cooled off.
Pretty sure, however, that the rails came out of the base again later on...

Iride01 

You really like that saddle? It might be time to learn to make new friends.

Epoxy the crap out of it if you are desperate. However I'd always worry it will come off when I least expect it and I become a Popsicle. <grin>

These are the pics the OP posted in the links given.

Mad Honk 

Bend the rails until you can get them to fit into the plastic, and then bend the rails back straight again. That is a bit labor intense but will work. Smiles, MH

fietsbob

the factory had a powered jig to bend the frame to go in the holes & to do that in a production efficiency time interval..

Those don't "break In" they break down & you get used to them... your body toughens up ..






...

rhm

The rail looks distorted. You need to straighten it before you put the saddle back together. When you put it back together, you need to flex the rail. You aren't going to stretch the plastic, but you may be able to bend it enough to pop the end of the rail into its socket. That said, I don't think this is going to end well.

wingless

An examination of those images indicates to me that the saddle part was flexed during manufacturing, probably with a fixture, to permit easy insertion of the formed metal frame, then the fixture releases the distortion to grab that frame.

It seems unlikely that a safe rework is possible to replace the frame into the saddle.

nomadmax 

I'm a thrifty SOB, however, I'd just replace that saddle. Aside from being a load of work and that saddles are available on CL or the local shop in a bin for next to nothing; I don't want to sit on anything that's already failed once,