Hi all, I have a friend who owns an equestrian leather business. We were thinking of starting a service to re-cover old saddles rather than paying for a new one. We may have the option of personalising the saddle too. The idea would be to post it, get it re-covered and back in a short time scale. The quality of the leather would be excellent and we believe cost wise it could be done quite cheap.

Would you bother? Or would you just buy a new one?

sounds neat, especially the personalisation bit.

Chuck in a free bag of haribo and I might.

If the price was right – and you could do it to the same quality as the original (thinking here that the leather on an SLR is rather thinner than that on a typical horsey saddle), then I'd definitely be interested.

Aye, I'd consider it.

This could be a goer. There are a few lads over on retro-bike who are already recovering seats but I'd wager that a niche exists here for quality and personalised recovers.

id buy one, how much (roughly) tho?

I'd consider it, price depending. I like the idea of possibly being able to choose a different colour.

I bet I know one or two niche whores that'd go for a personalising service. 😉

We need to work through the costings, but the beauty of it is, because the area to cover is so small, the "off-cuts" from other work could be used. They use quite a few different types of leather, but I thought we could do an alpkit style "trial" batch and do them next to nothing in exchange for feedback to develop the idea.

BTW How did RealMan know I had contacts with Haribo?

I'm game. I was thinking aobut this the other day for my hack. It's got a WTB saddle which is very comfy and not available anymore, only it's tatty and ripped.

I thought we could do an alpkit style "trial" batch and do them next to nothing in exchange for feedback to develop the idea.

Where do I send my old SLR to then? 🙂

Sounds a goer.

Sounds a good idea – I've got an old ritchey wcs ti saddle which is the comfiest ever, but the leather's almost worn through… If the cost is OK, it'll be winging its way to you.

Would you replace the foam and other padding as well? If so I'd have a look at that.

I would buy a new saddle. I would imagine only a few people would bother to get an old one re-covered, and I think that worn saddles – the classics like Brooks – look better that way and I presume feel more comfortable because the leather is worn.

Tis sounds like a lifestyle business with a limited market which means it will only ever be a nice hobby which might make you some extra pocket money.

mdb

See your point. To be honest, We're both pretty busy running other business's but I like the idea of making a few quid from a little service that offer's quality and efficiency. I'll keep you all posted on it and maybe get singletrack forum members to give the feedback on the first 10-20 units. Watch this space!

Thats a great idea. buy an old saddle from fleabay for pennies and get it recovered.

How about colour availability I'm assuming you would be able to do black and a couple of shades of brown but what about fancy options like white?

because the area to cover is so small, the "off-cuts" from other work could be used.

Love it. Really love businesses that do this.

My favourite example is the guy that owned a chicken farm, who used to have to pay for people to take his under-size chickens away (as they are unprofitable).

He bought a load of alligators, which he fed on the small chickens, and then sold on the alligators for loads of money.

Or something.

I was always sad when my favourite saddles gave up the ghost so would defo be interested in this, but one snag might be whether the tatty old original cover is bonded to the foam underneath, so maybe a pig of a job getting the old cover off without mangling the foam… 😕

interested , i have a customised broken in and very comfy flite with a very badly worn cover that i am unable to recover.

would be keen to get it restored

Just had a load of email's flying around with the guys involved and they are talking estimated costs of just under £20, but I guess the testing with lots of random saddles you lot send in would indicate if that would work or not. I'll post something back up when we finalize a few more plans…. Woo!

Will look at the foam issue as part of testing and see what can be done 😉

If teh resurfacing was put on without crappy staples like most other saddles I would 😉

I'd be interested, could they widen/deepen the groove in a bel-air saddle whilst they'r at it?

Great idea and love the fact that you will be recycling off cuts. Think you might need to be able to put new padding in as well, as this can be quite compressed and/or messed up on old saddles.

You would definitely find a market in the fixed gear scene, especially if you can do colours other than black or brown (white would be especially popular). Try londonfgss.com for some more market research.

I've got an SLR i'd definitely send you if you do decide to go ahead.

I could imagine everyone re-covering their saddles white to go with their posh fixies… again, all food for thought. Thanks guys

Oi finbar, I've got dibs on the SLR beta testing 😉

I'm about to buy a new saddle, so could you start doing them ASAP?????

I could imagine everyone re-covering their saddles white to go with their posh fixies… again, all food for thought.

You got it! White is the most popular fixed gear colour, but those crazy kids quite like a bit of neon as well (doubt horses feel the same way) and, in general, the more colours the better so that the bike can be fully colour coordinated. Think all of the colours that have ever been, or could ever be, on a My Little Pony and you are starting in the right place. The personalisation would be good too as saddle theft is a problem here in London – in fact there's already a guy who stamps initials etc on brooks saddles.

I would be intereted – got at least 2 saddles in the parts bin i would donate…

paul

Yup. Interested here. Another SLR/Flite fan who tends to go through them on the corners, before the rest of the saddle is barely broken in.

Good idea (for a change, on STW). Although I thought you meant horse saddles at first, I wondered why on earth you were asking on here!

But yes I've binned plenty of otherwise servicable saddles cos the leather's worn – it's what goes first ime. You can only do so much with insulation tape.