Homemade lightweight Saddle!

[Superlite]

I was wandering around the other day, looking for something when I stumbled across an old selle italia flite saddle from my old MTB. It was ratty and torn up, old school from early 90's and I tought, "Maybe I could make it into a lite seat.

Off came the cover, padding, and out came the exacto knives, dremmal, and sand paper. The result, a custom Flite saddle weighing in at a mear 108g! The really cool thing is its supper comfy. I'll get some pics up later today, but to give you an idea, it looks almost like the AX liteness Sprint. . I think with a little more work I can get it under 100g!

[saletel]

ive been pondering recovering one of my SLR's with gator skin.... post up the pictures

[Superlite]

Ok, here it is! From 215g to a scant 108g! Now thats a diet!

Theres also alot done underneath, excess material removed from everywhere. Pad alone took it down to ~160g.

[vashirak]

SL,

is that just the shell only? It looks even better than before! How did you manage to remove the padding so clean that there is no glue mark left?

[cyclemanpat]

I did the same thing to my SLR saddle. I removed all the stuck-on foam with nail polish remover. Saddle came perfectly clean

[520 Dan]

Superlite, are you going to run that saddle on your ride, or was this a project for sh*ts and giggles?

[Superlite]

For sh*ts and giggles, but i dunno, I'll try it for a week, and if I can honestly say it's as good as my Arione, good luck, then I just might leave it on.

And as for how I got the top so clean, I had to scrape all the foam off, then sand the top with different grits until smooth, then a coat of rustolium. Probly took 2-3 hours total.

[bobalou]

I bet if you cut the horn off you can save another 30-40 grams. Dude, you're going to have a sore ass with that seat. Just my .02.

[Joel]

SL, how did you saved that much weight?
I stripped the padding of a Flite and drilled some holes in it - +/-20 8mm holes. The weight came down from 271 to 165g, but I want to have it lighter

[Superlite]

SL, how did you saved that much weight?

Haha

That's where the xacto blades, dremal, and sander came it. Took all excess material off of underside, used dremal to cut out chunk in back, and sanded top down quite a bit.

I took it for a ride today and I was impressed! Very comfy! More so then the SLR Evolution I once rode. It has a slight hard spot, but nothing that can't be adjusted to be comfy, but overall I give it an 8/10 on comfort!

[Bruiser]

Looks like a metal finish, wouldn't it be a bit cold in your winter and warm in summer?

Brian

[Superlite]

Looks like a metal finish, wouldn't it be a bit cold in your winter and warm in summer?

What are you refering to? The saddle is carbon reinforced plastic. Only metal on this baby is the rails.

[Bruiser]

So that's a carbon finish?

Brian

[Superlite]

Maybe I'm missing someting. Are you talking about the finish as in paint I used, or actual materail the saddle is made of?

Saddle is carbon reinforced plastic, and I sprayed a coat of rustolium on it so it looks nice.

[Bruiser]

oh I see, that's a product not available here so I thought it might have been part of the preparation process for a metal saddle.

Does it get many comments?

Brian