A New Leather Saddle

Gilles Berthoud is working on an alternative

Gilles Berthoud writes:

Here is my saddle story

I start working on it in November 2006 , as I don't know how to make a saddle I met a worker from IDEALE saddles. This man was responsible of the saddle top line production, so he can give me all the information I have to know for making a saddle as that was done in the past. I have made 4 different saddles, until I found exactly what I want to offer.

The first saddle was specially made to test the leather behavior on a bike. Now the rider has made 11000 kms and the saddle shape stays very welland comfortable.

The second one was really too expensive so I look for an other idea.

The third saddle , we exhibit on many shows ( Eurobike - Paris - Interbike - Tokyo....), was more traditional conception, no thing really new, the tension system was still a screw as it has been done for years and years by the other saddles makers so I was not happy. My idea was to have something really better.

After many and many drawings I suddenly found the solution. When I found it, it was so simple than I stay about 3 hours looking if it is really possible, what should be wrong on this solution....but nothing was wrong, so I decide to make the saddle N° 4.

What will we offer on the new saddle ?

- The new tension system ( patented), the saddle nose can't turn around the tension screw , the screw has no stress so it can't break.

- the leather is fixed on the inside part with screws and washers with a special shape so the leather can't move when we make the tension. (May be patented)

- These screws are on the back of the saddle so when you are seating on it, your pants is not rubbing on the screws.

- The rails are made with spring stainless steel, very strong material (resistance 140 kg /mm2 )

- The crescent is made with a special plastic, very strong and more
flexible than steel so the saddle is more comfortable. (we do the test on
our machine.)

- The leather is coming from the factory who provide it to Ideale in the past. Very thick and high quality. It will be pre-softed by hand avoiding long breaking period.

- On the crescent we include the two loops for saddle bag and also thepossibility of fitting a KF (KlickFix bag attachment) system (sells separately) .

- The saddle is completely removable very easily (disassembling and assembling take less than 15 minutes).

- No rust after years, Washers (brass) -screws and rails (stainless) - crescent and nose (plastic)

- Weight around 500 grams

When will it be available ?

Really I don't know, we are ready with this new saddle, all is OK after the very hard test we do on it. The problem is to found the money to buy and build all the special machines we need for production.