Leather Saddle Repair? - Cycling Mob: Road Cycling, Mountain Biking and More

10-21-2004, 06:56 PM

My Lepper Voyager saddle has failed after only a little over 3 years
and about 10K miles. The 3 rivets at the nose of the saddle have
sheared off but the leather is still intact. The two outside (out of
5) rivets at the rear of the saddle are also showing signs of
corrosion. The saddle has been well maintained with proofhide and
never exposed to rain.

I suspect that the rivets were weakened by corrosion caused by
perspiration and our humid summer weather. The rivets used were just
brass plated steel and once the brass plating was gone the rivets just
rusted until they were weak enough to shear off one by one.

I also noticed that this saddle tended to stretch a lot on use and
then tighten up once it dried out. I never tightened it while it was
wet. It would almost stretch so much that it would contact the top of
the seatpost. Is it supposed to stretch that much?

Is this lifespan typical of a leather saddle. Do Brooks saddles hold
up any better? I notice that they seem to be held together with much
larger copper rivets.

Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions.

Steve