Fellow list members might recall that a few months ago I found an abandoned Peugeot UO-8, or AO-8 maybe, in a pile of roadside garbage during a ride with friends in Raleigh. I went back after the ride and liberated a really wretched-looking ADGA leather saddle from it. The saddle suffered from having been ridden with its clamp installed upside down for years and never having been tensioned or protected from the elements or Proofhided or anything. It was the consistancy of cardboard or maybe concrete and looked like you could break it in half with a single hammer blow, or maybe just from sitting on it. There were two deep furrows cut into the underside from the upside-down clamp gouging it.
I wet it down and reshaped it, then treated it liberally with Proofhide after it dried. Then I was able to tighten it up about 3/4" with a 13mm wrench I had modified to fit the nose nut by application of a grinding tool (I don't own a Brooks saddle-tightening wrench - are these still available ?) After all this the saddle LOOKED like a Real Leather Saddle, at least, so (as a joke) my older son Aaron and I gave it to little Gaelen (11), to see what would happen to him and it if he actually rode on it.
Well, Gaelen loves it. He has ridden several hundred Kilometers on it so far and insists that it is the most comfortable saddle he has ever used ! He had it on "Black Alice" at the Cirque Sunday ride where that bike won the first annual HotRod award, after having ridden the half-metric on it.
Yesterday we were out for a morning ride of about 45 miles with some friends in the Carolina Tarwheels club. I noticed that the ADGA, which has been quite noisy/creaky for his last few rides, was unaccountably silent yesterday. At the half-way-point rest stop, the adults gathered around to help improve Gaelen's fit on the bike since he is going for the NC State USCF time trial championship on it Saturday.
His saddle height was at least 3/4" too low ! Now, I know he's been growing like a weed, but it was about right just last week. On closer examination, it turned out that Mr. ADGA was sagging again. The tightening nut was unscrewed all the way back again and the saddle was limp as a dishrag. We adjusted the seat post height to allow for this and Gaelen finished the ride on it.
Last evening & this morning we retensioned the ADGA back up to proper tauntness again. So, its back to its old creaky self. I figure it will slowly re-undo its tension bolt if we leave it alone, but maybe if I Lok-tight the threads out past where we pulled it tight it will take longer. I wish we could get it to be quiet, but it IS French...
Glenn Jordan - Durham, NC