Selle Italia Leather Saddles

[Relayer]

I think it is so cool to see a company like Selle Italia getting their old unused leather saddle pressing machines back into service; and to my eye the results are stunningly beautiful!

The modern twist is the 3 layer construction, 2 leather layers with a mesh layer in the middle ... "Sella Italia says that, once pressed together, these three materials can better resist deformation and last longer than a single sheet of leather.". Sounds like a great idea although I do wonder if this resistance to deformation means a longer breaking in period, or do they start off with some give like a Cambium?

http://www.bikeradar.com/road/news/article/sella-italia-says-theres-life-in-the-leather-saddle-yet-47094/

I think I'd better go and hide my credit card 

Jim

[Aushiker]

Nice. I am in the market for a new leather saddle too

[Danneaux]

Idéale saddles in classic styles are about to be reissued in a newly reformed venture. A bit pricey at  € 250 each, they're due in September 2016. Victoire Cycles in Beaumont, France will be carrying them:
http://www.victoire-cycles.com/fr/actualites/renaissance-des-selles-id%C3%A9ale.html

In days gone by, there were "Brooks riders" and Thron and Bethet Company's "Idéale riders" and each were very patriotic in their preferences. Idéales were made from the 1890s to the mid-1980s and have recently brought stratospheric prices in the collector's market. There have been a number of remarkable restorations made by individual craftsmen using rechromed frames and recreated and retooled/restamped leather also sold at high prices. The reissues will be considerably less expensive and not so far off premium Brooks and Gilles Berthoud models.

Now, if only there were some reissues of classic Dutch Lepper saddles....
 
Best,

Dan.

[mickeg]

I thought about a Velo Orange saddle briefly, but decided not to get one.  They are a small component seller in USA, I am most certain that they do not make their own saddles, but where they outsource it I do not know.
http://store.velo-orange.com/index.php/components/saddles.html

[geocycle]

The VO ones look very similar to those marketed in uk by spa cycles. I think they use Australian leather. I'm quire shocked at how similar they are to brooks designs.

[Donerol]

Middlemore and Wright saddles were also very similar to Brooks. Not surprising, really - bums are bums even though there are subtle differences between them!

[mickeg]

I have an old Wright in storage, I got it new on a bike in 1973.  It was hard as a rock, very painful at the end of winter when I would start riding again.

When the basic design of a leather saddle is over a century old, I am not going to say that anyone is copying anyone, as I suspect that they all (including long gone makers) have copied each other over the years.

[Andre Jute]

The modern twist is the 3 layer construction, 2 leather layers with a mesh layer in the middle ... "Sella Italia says that, once pressed together, these three materials can better resist deformation and last longer than a single sheet of leather.".

I'd wonder about the quality of the leather. It's a well-known method of strengthening weak leather to glue two sheets of it together, or, when the result needs to be stronger still, to glue some nylon netting or poly sheet between the layers to introduce the benefits of disssimilar materials bonded together.

Of course it will also better be able to do what Selle Italia claims, resist deformation. But I thought a leather saddle was supposed to conform to your bum, i.e. deform beneficially.

[il padrone]

I'd wonder about the quality of the leather. It's a well-known method of strengthening weak leather to glue two sheets of it together, or, when the result needs to be stronger still, to glue some nylon netting or poly sheet between the layers to introduce the benefits of disssimilar materials bonded together.

Of course it will also better be able to do what Selle Italia claims, resist deformation. But I though a leather saddle was supposed to conform to your bum, i.e. deform beneficially.

I am reminded of my Brooks Team Pro. It resisted deformation..... persistently...... and painfully 

[Relayer]

I am reminded of my Brooks Team Pro. It resisted deformation..... persistently...... and painfully 

I have a Brooks Team Pro on each of my bikes, for me they are as close to perfect as I have found so far.   Maybe I have a harder, made in Scotland, posterior!   

[John Saxby]

To each, his/her own bottom & saddle, I guess. 

I took my Raven up into the hills the other day--we went from no foliage to full foliage in a week, the standard "you'll miss it if you blink" springtime transition--and atop the escarpment, met up with a young Québecois guy on a trick carbon Cervélo.

We had a Brooks love-in, admiring each other's saddles (not bottoms). He had a C-13 Cambium with a cut-out: said his stock Fizik worked for one year, and then painful numbness set in exactly where you don't want it. Since he got the C-13 last year, he no longer thinks about his saddle, le critère d'excellence for both of us.

He ooohed and aaahed over Osi's 4-year-old Brooks Champion B-17 brown 'un, "Looks like new," he said.

[Andre Jute]

John has it spot on. Fortunate is the cyclist who "no longer thinks about his saddle". Brooks forever!

And a day.