Repairing a bicycle seat!

[LaurenStanger]

My bikes coming friday!(Yay I checked tracking =D)
Bad news. It has a tear in the back of the seat. Does anyone know how to repair a bicycle seat diy style?

Thanks everyone!

 

[X-RAY]

when i ride, my seat is very hidden from view! :mrgreen: seriously, im sure someone can help you. oh, to be young and skinny again.

 

[udallcustombikes]

I know nothing on repairing vinyl. But I have found an easy way to remove the vinyl covers from the seat pans. I have used this method to remove covers to repaint them, swap a good cover from a rusted pan to a good one, replace padding,etc. Fire up your oven to 130-150° and place the seat on the rack bake for 5-10 minutes until the vinyl is flexible enough to stretch over the back of the pan then slide the nose off. When you are ready to reassemble just toss the cover back in again and reverse the procedure. Do not leave the whole seat in for too long or you might ruin the padding.

You might check your auto parts house for a vinyl repair kit for seats and those cheesy vinyl tops.

 

[LaurenStanger]

Thanks for the idea =D

 

[SCHWINNRAY69]

You can always get a new seat :? :wink:

 

[LaurenStanger]

Unfortunately for me that would be awhile

 

[HotRodJen]

sew sew sew ! ive done a few where i just took some foam and built it up to help my boney ... out , then i took some spray adhesive sprayed the foam , layed the fabric on it and pulled to the otehr side of the pan and glued it some more and then if its a double pan seat clamped them together and its done .

another method is to sew one up they are so easy to make you can use your original seat to make up a pattern and go from there , kinda looks like you dont have a double pan seat coming to you so that is a little tuff to finish it off you can always tuck the cover under the seat pan and try to use gorilla glue ,

ive used t-shirts, shop rags,jackets, all for bicycle seats diy style , there are other tutorials up here i think about seats .


and if you dont have a sewing machine to use , and want to sew by hand i recomend picking up heavy string or .. do it like the punk kids do and use floss that stuff is amazing

 

[HotRodJen]

this is the spray glue no sewing method i used on this one , but had a double pan




and same to this one but ill b changing this seat i want to go red fabric

 

[LaurenStanger]

Thanks! I saw your thing on here awhile back about seats but wasn't sure to repair the vinyl. I want to keep it looking original

 

[Herman]

You could always sew up a cover for it using Jen's ideas but adding an elastic band at the bottom , you can get the elastic material at a fabric shop and also the material or you can haunt the local thrift stores for old coats,etc. for some really cool material. You can also post a picture of your seat on the wanted section of this forum, I've seen these seats sell for $5 - $20 in really nice shape

 

[LaurenStanger]

Thanks for the idea on the wanted section!

 

[HotRodJen]

since you want it to look original looking with the vinyl and all , keep a eye out on your local fabric "scrap" bin , they always have them i scored my vinyl like that , usually its $19 or more a yard .. really way to much to cover a seat i found a 20" square for like 4 bucks i think , you might be able to find something like that

 

[LaurenStanger]

thanks. Ill check that out for sure soon!

 

[Walker]

If you are anywhere near the water, a boat upholstry shop may have vinyl scraps too.

 

[Dr. Tankenstein]

How about using a vinyl repair kit? They're pretty cheap.
If you did an 'overkill' and trimmed the patch to cover the entire section of the seat and not just the 'effected area' (man that sounds wrong :roll: ), it may be less noticable and stick better. Just thinkin'.....

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vinyl-Repair-Ki...587?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ca66f388b

good luck!

Cheers!
Dr. T

 

[LaurenStanger]

Thanks for the link. I appreciate it =D

 

[ozzmonaut]

At just about any auto parts store you can grab a tube of clear vinyl repair. It will come out of the tube like a thick glue or something. It will also come with some little textured pieces of paper. After applying the vinyl into that hole, you can place the paper over it while it dries to achieve a texture. In your case you might need a scrap of wax paper due to the large size of the hole. After it dries, peel the paper off and hit it with a squirt of red paint. I know this doesn't sound professional, but if you are doing this bike on the cheap for now it should get you by. If you over-do it on the vinyl repair, you can use a scrap of fine sandpaper to bring it down to level.

 

[LaurenStanger]

Good idea