Re covering a Brooks saddle

A little while back I had a 1950s Brooks Champion Narrow on my Humber, but unfortunately the leather split at one of the nose rivets making it unsafe for long distance touring. So with safety in mind I decided to buy a new black Brooks B17 for the Humber which suits the bike perfectly and is of course very comfortable. But as I had the old Brooks frame laying around I decided to re cover it and use it on my daily bike. I have always wanted a Brooks cut away racing saddle but as they are very expensive I never bought one. So I set about making a pattern for a new saddle, I started by covering the old saddle with a plastic shopping bag which I then taped down to the frame and by using a marker pen drew around the outline of the saddle then took the plastic bag off and cut out the saddle pattern. From the cut out plastic pattern I then transfered it to some art paper and added the curves. Once the final pattern was made to size I then marked the holes and cut the leather out etc. For further details of how I made the above saddle please go to my Flickr gallery showing the steps I took etc.

To get to the photos of the saddle just click on my slideshow at the top right hand corner of this blog which will take you to my Flickr gallery

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27102950@N06/sets/721576217

Pictured above is the pattern I made and a couple of shots of the finished saddle fitted to the bike