Tuesday, September 22

Leather Dye for Saddles

Has anyone out there tried leather dye for bringing Brooks saddles back to looking like new?

Here's how I'd do it.
  1. Condition and clean the saddle with Leatherique
  2. Dye with Leatherique dye, with Color Plus dye, or with a dye made for shoes (I've seen this in regular stores in the shoe care area)
  3. Let it dry for days if not weeks
  4. Try it, starting with clothes I wouldn't mind getting dye rubbed off on, and then getting more adventurous as it seemed to be staying on the saddle. There's a reason black is the traditional cycling short color!
No, I haven't tried this, but I might with the Wright's saddle I have on my wife's bike. If I do, I'll update this post. The Leatherique and Color Plus are both water based, which should allow the leather to "breathe." I have less confidence in something not water based. The water base, however, makes it likely that the dye will come back off for a while, hence item 4.

3 comments:

GreenComotion said...

I don't have an immediate need to treat any of my saddles. However, I would be interested in learning about your experimentation with the Wright saddle.

Peace :)

Doohickie said...

I used Kiwi shoe leather dye.

It bled on my pants a few times.

A while later, my seat looks 40+ years old again.

RANTWICK said...

Let it fade and scuff and get downright ugly, like a well-used baseball mitt. Wait a sec, I'm seeing a theme in my comments on your making things look nice again... I am lazy and that has resulted in my affection for character over maintenance. Carry on! I'm gonna go take a nap.

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