Saddle devouring shorts!
wishitwasallflat
Posts: 3,109
The stitching on the top (the little red, white and green lines on the left side of the cut out) of my Selle SMP Drakon are pretty rapidly rubbing through my shorts!!!! Anyone have any suggestions for a solution?
I found a post on another thread where someone said pressing the stitching down into the leather with the corner of an allen key sets them in but it hasn't worked for me (reckon that might work on the unpadded ones but not on my Drakon).
Recently got one of these patches - https://www.tear-aid.com/ - Type A which says it works on non-oiled leather. My saddle is leather but no idea if its oiled.
Expensive problem its a fairly new pair of Assos that are disappearing!
I found a post on another thread where someone said pressing the stitching down into the leather with the corner of an allen key sets them in but it hasn't worked for me (reckon that might work on the unpadded ones but not on my Drakon).
Recently got one of these patches - https://www.tear-aid.com/ - Type A which says it works on non-oiled leather. My saddle is leather but no idea if its oiled.
Expensive problem its a fairly new pair of Assos that are disappearing!
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I did this in a couple of minutes about 2 years ago and no problem since.
Cheers but I tried and it didn't work, did you push along the stitched line in the direction of the line (I.e perpendicular to the threads) or along the threads and was it a padded saddle? When I tried it it felt like the padding just compressed and so there was no real effect of bedding the threads down into the leather.
I threw weight considerations out of the window. I now have a Brooks B17 special on one bike and a Spa Cycles Chinese Blooks-alike on the other. All day comfortable and baby's bum smooth! The Assos are still pristine
Colnago
Cervelo
Campagnolo
I pushed across the line of the stitches.( Like a right angle to the direction of the threads)
The saddle is not padded as such, its a pretty hard one. My reasons for keeping it was it was a Colnago badged one and aside from the problem with shorts it is a great saddle
Thanks I reckon that trick must work on the non padded saddles where you can apply force directly to push the stitches down into the leather. On the Drakon the padding deforms and so it looks like there not much pressure being applied between stitches and leather. Extra annoyingly I reckon a less padded one may have suited me better!
I contacted the UK distributor in desperation to ask for advice and they were very nice about it and have contacted SMP today to see if they can advise on a solution. They seemed to think it wasn't impossible that I had got one of the pre 2012 ones where this was a known issue to SMP. Fingers crossed there is some good outcome cause while I am still getting used to it I think this might be a saddle I could live with and it cost £160 so I am looking at a big hit if I have to try to sell it on!
All I could find online was the idea that its to distinguish between different models as they all look basically the same and printing wears off! Still is a bolloxic idea though to have anything other than a smooth surface.
I'm well hacked off about this as I did do extensive research on this cause I was worried it may be a problem before buying. All I could find was several posts around that said that this was a known problem, for some folks, with these saddles, but only with the pre 2012 models! Several posts I found said that since 2012 SMP had changed the stitching and resolved it. I did get it discounted from Chain Reaction Cycles so maybe its a pre 2012 model.
Any way this could be wiggle's fault?