masi61

I may send a saddle to pastorbobnlnh for a new cover. I’m not sure how many saddles pastor Bob has done but in a weird way I would actually prefer to try it for myself. My favorite saddle is almost all versions of the Selle Italia Turbomatic. I have acquired several Turbomatic “1” titanium rail saddles that have crash damage. I wonder if a heat gun would come in handy for un-gluing the damaged leather cover. I also wonder if anyone has good sources for leather samples that could be used for the recovering operation. Ideally I would like to use striated Genuine Buffalo hide but am curious about synthetic Lorica too since it is what is on my Turbomatic Team Carbon saddles I am using now and I looked the Lorica material as well.

Thnaks in advance for any links to tutorial videos, saddle refurbishing resources, etc…

repechage

I have done a number of them, prefer leather.
unbacked Alcantara can be good too but not cheap.
I have primarily done the Cinelli Unicanitor saddles that require a dart sewn at the nose.
I also have the leather skived thinner, .6mm works very well. .8 is workable
typical auto upholstery leather is 1.2-1.4mm

there are old threads that can be reviewed with images.

Mad Honk 

I recovered my Concor with leather I picked up at Hobby Lobby. $20 for about two feet square. It seated down with rubber cement but needed some work around the tough to fit areas. I finished the total cover edge with a coat of quick set epoxy to hold everything down. HTH, MH

rhm

I've done one in leather i got on eBay. You want chrome-tanned leather, not veg-tanned. It has to be stretchy. Stitching the dart by hand is not a big deal, it's about ten stitches that won't be under any tension in the long run.the one i did, i did not remove the old worn-out leather that was firmly bonded the foam; i didn't want to risk hurting the foam.

rhm

I've done one in leather i got on eBay. You want chrome-tanned leather, not veg-tanned. It has to be stretchy. Stitching the dart by hand is not a big deal, it's about ten stitches that won't be under any tension in the long run.the one i did, i did not remove the old worn-out leather that was firmly bonded the foam; i didn't want to risk hurting the foam.

repechage

Let Pfaff handle the stitching.
made in Western Germany

Velo Mule

I got a tip on getting leather for recovering seats here on BikeForums. Look at yard sales and thrift shops for out of style leather jackets. I haven't tried it yet, but the leather seems light enough to be workable.

Big Block

this thread might be of use
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...-saddle-2.html

rhm

I tried to use a leather jacket once. I also tried the leather from a leather sofa. Both were an acceptable thicknrss. The jacket was better than the sofa but neither was stretchy enough; i think they were just too old.
I recycle almost everything and i applaud any effort to reuse the old rather than but the new. But in this case, in my opinion,you need new. Use the old jacket and or sofa for handlebar tape, it's perfect for that. But get something new and stretchy for the saddle.

unworthy1

YES! That's the one I thought of immediately. In fact I'm soon going to follow his Wiki and re-cover a Turbo carcass with some stretchy black leather harvested from a leather sofa (discarded on the street).

I looked over a large selection of leather scrap at a great local resource here in SF (called S.C.R.A.P) that always seems to have mainly small pieces, but this time has some larger scraps (big enough for a saddle job) but all seemed a little too thick and not as stretchy as this sofa-stuff.

But if the C&V crowd runs out of options, and I come into some more free time, I'd be willing to visit SCRAP and buy/mail some leather for cost of materials and postage. The size and colors vary so you don't know what you'll find until you do!