It's A Revival

 Not long ago I saw a bike come into the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective which, as is the case with many of our donated bicycles, was a bike that had been sitting dormant for probably decades. On the dust-ridden specimen was a saddle which looked like a brown blob. Misshapen and dried up, it probably would have flown under the radar of many people, A saddle worth nothing and being an item worth nothing more than to be trashed. However; I was able to recognize it for what it really was - a severely neglected Brooks leather saddle. 

Brooks B-72 model. (Image courtesy of  Brooks)

I wish I had the presence of mind to have taken an image of this saddle when I started trying to revive it.  Unfortunately I was so wrapped up in the thoughts of just how to approach this dried out hunk of cow skin that I did not take an image at the beginning of the process. And that is what this thing looked like, a patch of dried out leather strung over a steel framework.

The sides were flayed outward, the middle of the saddle was bowed upward, due to the effects of shrinkage while attached to the steel saddle framework. It was severely cracked, and probably too far gone, but this is just the sort of challenge I am attracted to: A project with nothing to lose and everything to gain. I was, at the very least, going to learn something, and that is worth making this project happen.

Reviving a Brooks leather saddle is nothing new. In fact, if you were to think of the saddle as it really is - dried out skin- and if you treated it as such, there is a good possibility you might end up becoming successful in your endeavors. And there are a lot of people with various opinions on just how to do a Brooks saddle revival. So, I hopped online and took a gander. I ended up approaching this with a technique which resonated with my intuitions ahead of looking for help.

Brooks makes a leather treatment they call "Proofide" I just so happened to have a partial tin and another new tin of the stuff on hand. (I own and ride four other Brooks leather saddles already) So, this process relies on a liberal usage of Proofide, time, and a toe strap or two.

Proofide is highly recommended for Brooks saddles and it does what you need it to when you want to recondition a saddle. But this was an extreme case, and I was a bit skeptical if this was going to get me anywhere. However; the advice I read online insisted this would work, and the example saddle I saw was actually in worse shape than the one I had in hand. So, again, I had nothing to lose but a little Proofide, time, and effort.

The first application of Proofide, top and bottom, by the way, was sucked into the dried up skin much like dry wood sucks up paint. And it barely did anything, but again, this leather was bone dry. I waited a couple of days and applied a second coat top and bottom. After this the saddle started to become compliant. So I decided to pull in the sides with some toe straps to help form, or as the leather experts would say, "block up" the piece into a shape which I wanted the leather to go.

When Proofide is applied, a slight haze is supposed to develop over the surface of the leather when it dries, and this is to be buffed off with a soft cloth. After two applications, I was not seeing this haze develop, and when I tried buffing off the saddle it really did not do anything. I applied another layer of Proofide then, and I waited.....

A week later I applied yet another layer of Proofide as the previous application had dried up - again with no hazing. I waited about a week and a half longer, and when I checked it out on Thursday two weeks ago, it had hazed over!

So, I buffed it out, and then I noticed that I could see pores in the skin where I could not see this before. I think this is a good sign and shows that the leather is responding now in a way which leads me to believe the saddle just might end up becoming useful at some point.

My research turned up a point I was happy to learn, but I do not know yet if this will actually turn out in practice. I had read that cracks in the surface of the leather would eventually blend into a smoother surface after Proofide treatments. Maybe they will, but I do know that these cracks seem to have lost their "flakiness" and are more like lines in the surface of the saddle now. Not a section which might tear off, or crack more deeply, at any rate. Still, there is a long way to go before they would "blend in" to the surface, as I had read they should do.

I took off my toe straps to see how the skirts were reacting. When I started, they were almost sticking straight out, at about the same plane as the top! They are holding their shape much better than I had expected, only springing back a few millimeters when I removed the straps. I re-strapped it a bit differently, and I will put more Proofide on soon. This process is going to take a while!

By the way, in case anyone was thinking of this, there is no tension  on the top right now, and the tensioning nut was backed off all the way when I found the saddle, making me think it hadn't ever been adjusted. Sad to think this B-72 hadn't really ever been used as it should have been.

I've got time, so this is not a problem for me. I am hopeful it works out, as this was a piece that was headed for the recyclers if I hadn't decided to try this out.

And what if it does work out? Well, on the chance this ends up becoming a useful saddle, I will have to consider where it will end up. I would give a donation to the Collective, and I probably would put this on a bike I sit more upright on. Fortunately this saddle still has the sandwich clamp. The B-72 has double saddle rails, so this was a boon to my wanting to make this work out.

I'll also admit the other motivating factor here is that a new B-72 costs $190.00, so making this old one work would be a nice score.

I'll have an update on my progress later on. Plus, if anyone has any tips, I'm all ears. So far this has been working out well. The leather has actually swollen and gotten thicker, more pliable, and looking more like a Brooks saddle than a hunk of beef jerky.

Stay tuned....