Repairing A Vinyl Saddle
#26
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I just tried the liquid electrical tape, notably "Star Brite" brand from Home Depot. I got black, but there are other colors. As I expected, it smells like the stuff you're supposed to use for PVC plumbing, which makes sense because electrical insulation is also typically vinyl. The can says Methyl Ethyl Ketone, which I suspect is capable of slightly dissolving into the vinyl, improving adhesion.
For a large "flap" that was torn away from one saddle, it caused the vinyl to curl outward a bit, so it's not a perfectly tidy repair, but certainly workable. On another saddle, that just had a small rip, but the fabric was intact, the repair was quite smooth. In case you're wondering what I'm doing to saddles, some of these are quite old, and these are bikes that get knocked around, parked at school, etc. I'm testing this stuff on the "lesser" saddles and ones in my bin, before trying it on my wife's brand new bike.
But I'm quite impressed so far.
For a large "flap" that was torn away from one saddle, it caused the vinyl to curl outward a bit, so it's not a perfectly tidy repair, but certainly workable. On another saddle, that just had a small rip, but the fabric was intact, the repair was quite smooth. In case you're wondering what I'm doing to saddles, some of these are quite old, and these are bikes that get knocked around, parked at school, etc. I'm testing this stuff on the "lesser" saddles and ones in my bin, before trying it on my wife's brand new bike.
But I'm quite impressed so far.
#27
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This stuff may be good for saddle repairs as well or adding scuff protection to a saddle or repairing scuffed cycling shoes etc. https://tufftoe.com/products/tuff-toe-work-boot-toe-protection-repair
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I have a saddle that I'll be recovering soon. Should I post a step by step showing how I do it? If so, where should I post it?
Cheers
Cheers
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I know the OP solved the problem but I’ve used vinyl/leather repair kits on classic cars with good results. They come with an assortment of colors, some textured papers and a small heating element. They work well enough on car seats that you’d never notice and they’d likely work fine on a saddle as long as it’s not in a structural place. Option B of recovering works well too and isn’t as hard as you think. I followed step by step instructions on a website 5-6 years ago.
#30
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'Just took a pretty long day trip on the saddle I mended with Gorilla Super Glue Gel. It seems very solid, having survived hours in the hot sun while the bike was parked on a ferry and outside the place I ate lunch. I'd say this stuff is a good option for saddle damage outside of the area where you plant your butt.
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These kind of repairs work when the saddle cover begins to expire, slightly extending life of the cover. At some point, though, sooner than you think, there is nothing there to fix anymore of relevance on such scale. On the other hand, my Gorilla taped saddle has gone through 9 cat lives by now. Incidentally, German Tessa produces so-called cloth tape for repairing torn fabric, available in virtually any hardware store in Germany. I used it successfully on cut luggage bags on which it seemed to last forever. However, the surface of Tessa's tape is rough with maybe particular intention to serve book cover repair and thus not that well suited for saddles. In a parallel action, I bought some vinyl cloth on Ebay and will try to see how a complete rebuilding of the cover works.
Last edited by 2_i; 08-12-19 at 10:29 AM.