Misshaped Brooks B17 repair.

[sparkybhp]

I’ve had this B17 a good while and have managed to get the leather into a reasonably healthy state with some careful cleaning and proofide treatment. However, I couldn’t get the sides of the seat to stop splaying out which made it look quite ugly on a bike.
I’ve taken inspiration from Brooks themselves and purchased a punch to make a series of holes 10mm apart along the lower lip of the saddle:
I managed to find a suitable bootlace to thread through the holes and pull it tight to get the sides back in shape.

It’s come out pretty neat all things considered and I reckon good enough to use on my Claud Butler.

Looking good.

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

Has the added benefit of stiffening the saddle too, good save

 

[Jonny69]

Looks good. If you didn’t want to punch and tie it, an alternative is to soak the leather in warm water to soften it. You can then block it up in the shape you want and let it dry and it’ll set into that shape

 

[Nabeaquam]

I’m not a big fan of leather saddles. It’s fairly wet here. I used to ride to work when it’s dry, then it rains. I come out to ride and my Brooks is soaked. Fenders, shower caps and Proofide don’t keep it dry. The leather deforms and dries. Sometimes you can clean an old really bad saddle by soaking it in pink antifreeze with strings and other jury rigged methods to hold it in place. It can sometimes dry in almost original shape. If the saddle is too rotten this treatment will result in pieces. The new shape won’t stay so it can be soaked in melted canning wax, which hardens it. Depending on the condition this might save it. Again if it’s too rotten it can still crack. Another trick I use for cracked leather or in places where the rivets areas are split is to use flexible marine epoxy rubbed into the top of the saddle. This stuff dries slowly and won’t dry unless it’s mixed exactly in the proper ratio. I then soak it in melted wax. Here is an old Brookes B72 that I repaired with flexible epoxy and melted wax.

 

[Oldtat]

Agree that Brooks saddles can be a right pain. Aside from misshapen leather I had a frame snap on a fairly new B17. No idea why. Had to drill out the rivets and used marine screws to refit. The replacement frame I bought was badly machined and wouldn't fit at the nose so had to be filed down. Quite a good result mind...

 

[Oldtat]