I just acquired this seat for an Elgin Robin project I’m working on. It has the perfect patina I’m looking for.
The seat cover is in ok condition for its age but if there’s anything I could do to preserve or prolong it I’d like to do it. This bike will occasionally be ridden but not very often.
My main question is what is the material. When I researched about these seats it sounded like they’re normally originally leather. Whenever I see restored versions they’re always re-done in leather. This material doesn’t really look like leather to me- especially in the worn areas. If it is some non-leather material is there anything that could be applied to it to keep it from getting more brittle? If it is leather I have a good conditioner I would apply.
Any thoughts/ insight?
Thanks.
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Hello...
REGARDING TROXEL BICYCLE SADDLES...
I should tell you that I started collecting Troxel bicycle saddle literature, parts and memorabilia in the 1950s. I had letter correspondence with the company on their older stuff up until they went out of business and closed down their Tennessee operation. The name continued after that but...
Anyway, I still have letters and I am attaching one written to me by Troxel's Vice-President in 1974 (by the way, at that time I was restoring a Western Flyer X-53 Super). Troxel also sent me their remaining stock of vintage parts at that time. I had several crates of vintage original NOS Troxel parts/items until my buildings were broken into and robbed about 20 years ago. But we still have extensive Troxel literature and historical items.
Unsure where and how you are doing research on vintage Troxel saddles. However there were usually two versions of the top-line Troxel saddles from the 1920s through the 1950s. One was "genuine leather" and the other was sometimes referred to as "leather" but was actually an early vinyl that was once generically known as "oil cloth" and other names.
Like the bicycle hobby today where terms are repeatedly blurred and slurred and morphed, the term "leather" took on a huge number of meanings between the 1920s and 1950s. It got so bad at one point to where anything used as a covering was being called "leather" (you have to be old enough to remember this). Shoes and other things including car upholstery made of shiny vinyl were being called "patent leather"– which, of course, contained no leather at all. Even Troxel and car companies had to purposely state "GENUINE LEATHER" for coverings made of traditional animal hides.
Today, the silliness is once again out of hand with such things as office chairs now covered in what is being called "P U Leather." They refuse to say fake leather or vinyl because the public wants to hear that word: LEATHER"! By the way... when I was a kid, "P U" (pronounced "peeee-yewwwwwwww") was what American kids used to say when something smelled horrible. Go figure what genius came up with "P U leather" in recent years, but there it is.
In the 1950s,
most Lobdell-Emery, Faulhaber, Mesinger, Persons and Troxel saddles were being covered in some kind of vinyl. Troxel actually had to add "Genuine Leather" to their seat top stamps in the late 1940s-1950s just to differentiate from the cheaper stuff. Especially since things had reached the point where the general public could no longer recognize real leather.
The underside of the saddle in your photos is also in vinyl, but in what the industry used to call "cobra-grain." Troxel often used such a textured grained vinyl for the undersides of their prewar bicycle saddles. This pattern was used on lots of automotive applications including vinyl tops into the 1970s. Having once worked at the OEM level of the auto industry and having had part ownership in an automotive trim shop I can assure you of this.
As for what to do to preserve prewar Troxel saddles such as you show? First, there used to be a special shoe polish available in bottles with an applicator. The polish I refer to had a flex-filler ingredient supposedly to fill-in cracks and keep leather flexible... it barely worked, but it helped. Doubtful you could even find such stuff today.
Shiner-upper spray-on automotive treatments draw what little oils remaining out of the vinyl substrate. While these treatments may make your piece shiny for a while, they tend to dry it out even faster.
Of course, one CAN revert to using good 'ol Pledge furniture polish which will likely bring you closer to your desired aims. HOWEVER... no good treatment for these saddles can prevent the damage done by a 21st-Century American adult merely sitting on the seat. Don't even mention RIDING on the seat!
So. You can ask a professional car detailer who works on high-end automobiles for advice. But the best advice in the world is this:
• use the best treatments...
• and don't sit on the saddle!
These things were never designed for full-sized adults the likes of which are common today. Add in all of the age, weather exposure, the brittlness and existing wear on even a nice original vintage bicycle seat... and it's just like putting slices of bread in the toaster. Cah-chunk!
And like music producers trying to force a band in a recording studio to play something that really oughta be left alone– "Take #221...kah-chowww!"...there are those who will destroy a beautiful original saddle. "By golly, I'm gonna ride this thing come hell or high water." "Model T Fords oughta be driven on the Interstate highways!" If you MUST ride one of these bicycles, swap on a riding seat if it has to be ridden. Save the original... which can only be original once.
(Next will come the arguers who'll say... "...but I ride my old bicycle seat every day and it looks perfect...!" and yadda-yadda. Evvvverybody's got an argument... and a navel... and evvvverybody's got an opinion. But when your
original saddle is destroyed, where ya gonna find another one and how long will that one last? Go ahead, paint a mustache on the
Mona Lisa...)
Leon Dixon
National Bicycle History Archive of America
(NBHAA.com)
