Changing saddle rails

[Kell]

Picked my bike up today and noticed one of the saddle rails has snapped.

Must be my excess pandemic weight.

Anyhow. This is not the original, I swapped it out some time ago for the lime green Brompton one. Which I prefer, but which is no longer available.

I still have the original black one, which I’ve refitted for now. But I was looking to maybe swap one of the rails and keep running the green one.

A quick Google hasn’t revealed anything. I mean it looks like it should just pull out after loosening a few screws, but it didn’t want to budge easily.

Any tips before I use brute force and hurt myself?

 

[HLaB]

View: https://youtu.be/a1EVSxQUkiU

 

[cougie uk]

I've never known anyone swap a saddle rail.

If one has broken - why would you trust the other ?

 

[T4tomo]

I think it can be done, getting the new rails into the saddle is the very tricky bit......you have to have the a couple of seat posts attached and use them to bend the rails enough to get them into the saddle. not a job for the faint hearted. I have seen a video of someone doing it on a leather saddle somewhere. I'd be tempted not to bother, you may well end up wrecking your good saddle and not fixing the old one.

 

[Kell]

View: https://youtu.be/a1EVSxQUkiU

Thanks for that, but that’s not the issue.

I know how to swap the saddle out, it’s removing and replacing the rails that’s the issue.

 

[Kell]

I think it can be done, getting the new rails into the saddle is the very tricky bit......you have to have the a couple of seat posts attached and use them to bend the rails enough to get them into the saddle. not a job for the faint hearted. I have seen a video of someone doing it on a leather saddle somewhere. I'd be tempted not to bother, you may well end up wrecking your good saddle and not fixing the old one.

That’s my worry. I was obviously going to start with the wrecked one. And work things out from there.

The snapped one came out of the rear ok, but nothing seems to want to come out at the front.

 

[Kell]

Well, I found this video. Looks like hard work.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_m9F2gZJno

 

[T4tomo]

Well, I found this video. Looks like hard work.

that's the one I've seen i think, i was contemplating swapping titanium rails from a black Rolls to my Bianchi celeste coloured Rolls. dedicided it looked all too difficult!!

 

[Kell]

I also hadn't considered that it might be one piece. Assumed two separate rails.

More than anything, it seems like a waste. The rest of the seat is still perfectly serviceable, so it would be a shame to just bin it. It's the sort of thing that should be replaceable. Especially in a society that should be moving more towards recycling.

 

[ukoldschool]

Its one piece moulded into the plastic at the front, put it where it belongs - in the bin.
I have seen valuable old saddles restored to new and the rails replaced, but they were they type with 2 separate rails

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I also hadn't considered that it might be one piece. Assumed two separate rails.

More than anything, it seems like a waste. The rest of the seat is still perfectly serviceable, so it would be a shame to just bin it. It's the sort of thing that should be replaceable. Especially in a society that should be moving more towards recycling.

You can with some of the leather saddles

 

[Kell]

I went on a webchat with Brompton yesterday in the vain hope that they might have some deadstock knocking about somewhere. they don't class them as serviceable, and the rails are not sold separately. So, if I didn't have the original, it would involve finding a ripped seat and taking it apart AND building a special tool to do it.

TBH, it doesn't look like it's worth paying someone else to do it, would probably cost more than the seat is worth. And it's not like it's THAT comfy. Longer rides (i.e. 1 hour plus) I find it quite painful. I just like the colour.

Tried eBay, but now they're no longer manufactured, people are asking silly money for ones in pretty poor condition.

Now I've removed some of the bits, I can see where the rail goes around and bends back up. I'm going to keep it as is for now, in case they ask me to send it back to them, if they come back and say there's nothing that can be done, I may try and remove it and see how I feel about canibalising the good seat I do have.

 

[Kell]

This is where it went.

 

[presta]

This is where it went.

View attachment 669009

Because that's the point of maximum stress, where it enters the clamp.

When mine went, the entry to the clamp formed just enough of a shallow hole to trap the broken end in place, and I didn't notice it was broken until it dropped out when I picked up the bike with my hand under the back of the saddle. I made a running repair to get me home by sliding the saddle forward about 6mm so the clamp held the broken end, and it worked well enough to use it for a few hundred miles whilst I was looking for a new saddle. In fact I had more confidence in it that than the new saddle, so I did an 1130 mile tour that summer with the old broken saddle strapped to the rack as an emrgency spare. I didn't use it, but the new saddle was killing me, so I ditched it when I got home. They were both Selle Italia FLX, but there had been a design change in between.

 

[Kell]

Actually, it's not where it enters the clamp where mine is (was) set up.

I had my seat pushed right back to the maximum mark, so this would be about as far away from the clamp as it would be possible to be.

I know the way Brompton set their bikes up, the seat is pushed really, really far forward. Excessively so, IMHO.