As a result of a heavy landing where the seatpost should have been dropped, the seat rails on her saddle were bent on one side….

I pulled the rails straight to finish the ride, but has this probably weakened them to the point of a probable failure soon? This obviously wouldnt be good if it happened out on a ride…

Not sure if teh rails are Ti or another material…

Any thoughts… ?

Throw it. The last thing you want is for it to fail at a really dodgy time.

The irritating thing is its almost new…… the cover and stitching are perfect

Its a Selle Italia Diva @ £ lots….

That’s fine then. At least when she’s crashed and in a&e with spinal injuries you have the saddle to look at.

I straightened the rails on the wife’s cheap halforda saddle after a crash. It was fine for a year. Did eventually replace it, though.

From the op

but has this probably weakened them to the point of a probable failure soon?

So quite a big failure then?
Just buy a £5 saddle if you’re worried about cost.

That’s fine then. At least when she’s crashed and in a&e with spinal injuries you have the saddle to look at.

guff!
Iv straightened loads of saddles – 3 times in some cases. None have snapped and even if they did whats the worst that can happen? – certainly not the above!

The best thing to do is get your biggest hammer – hold the bike down and whack the saddle upwards repeatedly as hard as you can 🙂

You’re engineering prowess has beaten my weak argument.
I bow to your superior knowledge.

Impressive hand wringing there iolo, ridiculous 🙄

It’ll be fine, you’re unlikely to have a fatal accident as a result of broken saddle rails anyway!

My suggestion would be to use a vice or similar to carefully straighten the rails. Using a hammer is more likely to put little dents in the rails and cause stress risers or just bugger the rails.

You’re engineering prowess has beaten my weak argument.
I bow to your superior knowledge.

You are learning well my young padawan

Been riding round on an SLR 135g with hollow ti rails that I bent and then straigtened 6 months ago.

When it does finally snap – just shuffle the saddle around in the seatpost head so that the break is supported in the middle of the clamp and finish the ride

When it does finally snap – just shuffle the saddle around in the seatpost head so that the break is supported in the middle of the clamp and finish the ride pray someone is there to phone to air ambulance to deal with your horrific spinal injuries

FTFY 😉

Can someone please explain how spinal injuries result from a snapped saddle rail as i’m having difficulty visualizing this?

Unless you’re already crashing I don’t see much risk from a broken saddle – it’s not like there’s any weight on it when you’re doing anything interesting, is there? Obviously if there is then the saddle isn’t the problem!

I must be lucky! Rode around on a Specialized BG with one busted rail for two months as didn’t have the cash to replace it, just moved the saddle back a bit and reclamped 😀

It will be fine.
Straightened badly bent rails on my Spesh Taupe after a 30mph crash and the seat is still good. Was a couple of years ago.
Used a bench vice, Ti rails.
PS Test if it is steel or Ti with a magnet

Thanks, I was just about to take out medivac cover for tonights ride….

The bench vice suggestion sounds a good one, failing that its the whirling hammers of doom…

Hold fire rickmeister
What if…….

Your saddle rails brake in 4 places at the same time freeing your saddle from your seatpost (Could happen!) and allowing your saddle to fall to the floor – without you noticing.

Then you go off a big jump, loose both feet in the air and land on top of the newly exposed seatpost. The seatpost enters your anus travels through your body impacting your spine.

Id take out the cover if I were you!

When I have broken saddle rails, it has consisted of riding along wondering what’s not quite right for quite a while, before actually getting off and looking to find the broken rail. In the future I will keep an eye out for circling medivac helicopters as an early warning sign that my saddle needs replacing.

I want iolo back!

ndt

Can someone please explain how spinal injuries result from a snapped saddle rail as i’m having difficulty visualizing this?

Think you may have answered your own question though there may be extra damage from a suddenly extending anally impacted Gravity Dropper….

iolo, probably fractious, may not be back …

It’ll be reet. I’m a right big fat, clumsy heifer, and after bending mine with a particularly sack-of-spuuds landing, I straightened my saddle rails with a hammer (actually.. it might have been a rock). They’ve been fine since.

I’ve straightened a couple, but they’ve never stayed straight, they always bend back in over a fairly short time. Never broken one though.

Straightening is the reverse of bending incidentally, people seem to overthink it and fanny around with vices and levers and stuff, when they have the ideal seat clamping device already in their bike. Just bolt up one rail at a time and mangle on. You might not want to use a posh superlight lost though.

Not a seat rail failure injury but clamp based injury.

I have a friend in his fifties who as a young lad was riding behind a friend when his seat suddenly tilted back, screamed as he skidded to halt and crashed still screaming.

When going to his friends aid it became apparent that the boys tackle had become jammed between the seat stays and rear wheel forcing the skid and subsequent crash.
And the boy was left in heap still with his bits well and truly wedged, screaming such a scream my friend had not heard before or since.

After a attempt to free the boy by brute force failed spectacularly he let the air out of the tyre and gently backed up the wheel finally releasing his friend, who instantly jumped to his feet and ran home at fast as he could clutching his jewels still screaming ferociously .

When ever my friend tells this story he is in absolute hysterics with tears streaming down his face.
In sympathy I am sure.

I have a friend in his fifties who as a young lad was riding behind a friend when his seat suddenly tilted back, screamed as he skidded to halt and crashed still screaming.

Aye, broken seatposts are not a pleasant prospect, saddle rails though…