Cracked seat

L

Lurkin

100 kW
Joined
Jan 18, 2015
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1,473
Location
Melbourne, VIC, AUS
Two days after fitting a Specialized Romin Evo to my road bike five months ago, I had a decent accident which I have discovered split the plastic seat next to the rails.

Given it's a ~$200 seat, I'm loath to just throw it out.

Has anyone ever (successfully) repaired a saddle?

Options considered so far are:-
- Fibreglass structure below it
- some sort of solvent glue to melt the two seat parts back together again
- some sort of extra strong epoxy on its own... but concerned flexing the seat will just bust it.....
 
This is only my third post at ES, but since I'm in the fiberglass biz (boat repair), I do have a suggestion: Since you mentioned it, you could build a foundation under the damaged area from epoxy and fiberglass, then use fasteners (screw or bolt) to brace the damaged seat parts back into alignment. Prayers and crossed fingers help. As would some skill with laminates. Might be easier to hammer a brace out of strap aluminum and bolt to that. I doubt glue would stick to the plastic seat itself. Personally, I'd just replace the seat. Time is a precious resource, a finite one, too. Good luck!
 
Try an epoxy designed for plastics. don't add anything to support the crack, just use enough to bond the seam. www.Amazon.com/Permatex If it doesn't work, you might be out of luck.

Anything else you do to fix it, like building up a Fiberglas or better yet a carbon Kevlar mat to support the crack will ruin the way the seat feels. that plastic is suppose to flex and bend to allow the seat to fit your body.

"fixing" it isn't so hard, but adding anything to the seat to support that cracked area will make the seat feel worse than a $19 walmart seat.
 
Hmm. I was thinking the same. However, the break runs along the seats reinforcement, so a bead in the crack/on top of it is unlikely to greatly affect it's flexibility (hopefully).

It will probably need reinforcing to be effective, otherwise it's likely to just break in the same place. I might try riveting plastic either side if possible and epoxying around/over it.

It's for a rarely used road bike, so I'm hoping to fix it well enough to ride it infrequently and if it changes (start riding more) I'll cough up the bread for a new one.
 
I've got some DP810 and kevlar/cabon weave. I've used them to repair carbon frames.
PM me if you need some.
 
Hmm. have been googling to try and work out what type of plastic the seat is made out of - which will determine the epoxy to use. Not having much luck.
 
If you can shave a sliver off and light it with a match, nylon will smell like a hair burning. Unmistakable! Slight amounts of fiber reinforcement fillers will not matter much on which glues may work. Most quality seat bases use a low 10% or so fill so they can flex nicely and are built as light as possible. Fixing them is always a long shot and may not be worth the trouble. You may want to see if the plastic base is available, or find one that has the cover all torn up to steal the base from and use your cover on.
 
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