Yes! whenever bicycles are broken, or menaced by international communism, Bicycle Repair Man is ready!

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

El cóndor regresa

A few years back I broke the seat rail on my favorite saddle, a Selle Italia Condor.

After seeing this photo on this page:


...I figured it wouldn't be too hard to replace the rails.  I happened to have a made-in-Italy Vetta saddle with chrome rails that looked to match the Italia.  The Vetta was okay but had some cuts in the vinyl cover.

I foolishly did not photograph the process, so I will use diagrams to demonstrate what I did.

WARNING: Don't hurt yourself if you try this.

The first step is to remove the old rails out of both saddles.  This is tricky because there isn't much metal to grab, and the saddle is designed to keep the rails in.

First I clamped the nose of the saddle to a hardwood board.  A small wooden insert was used to stop the C-clamp marring the inside of the saddle.

Then, I clamped some plywood blocks onto the rearward end of the rails and popped them out at the nose end.  This is the most difficult / scary part of the operation, as the rails will come out with some force.

To reinsert the rails, I used a large screwdriver like a prybar to pull the nose back over the new rails.  Pop!


3 comments:

Unknown said...

"Then, I clamped some plywood blocks onto the rearward end of the rails and popped them out at the nose end."

Must be clear to you, but I just dont get it. Could you elaborate please.

Unknown said...

OK, I figured out the first part (removal). So I clamped the nose and back of the saddle (upside down) on a stool. I put a wooden dowel underneat the rails, put a heavy towel on top (security measure) and pull on the dowel. The rails pupped out with reasonable force.

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