# Keeping your bike seat dry--please help



## halesya (24 Oct 2010)

I'm a student at the University of Coloardo, and I am working with a group to develop a product to keep your bike seat dry. I need feedback from people that are knowledgable about bikes! Our two proposed ideas are:
1. bike seat that opens through a locking hinge to reveal a small compartment with absorbent towel. The entire seat would be the compartment but it would be shallow so as not to add significant height to the seat. This compartment could also be used to store other things rather than just a towel. 
2. under seat attachment that can be tucked away under the seat or pulled out to cover the seat and is water resistant. Much like the bike fanny packs, the storage compartment would be attached to the underside of the seat on the bar. The cover wold not be removed from the pack but pulled out and around the seat to protect it.

ANY thoughts, criticism, suggestions, etc are more than welcome! I hope to hear back from some of you! Thanks


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## Davidc (24 Oct 2010)

Shower cap. Found in all good hotel rooms. Perfect for the job. Throw in the bin after use. Keep in the tool wallet or 5 can be tucked under a Brooks B17 seat above the rails.

If you need more than you can collect from hotels they're £1.00 per 50 online, individually boxed

I'm afraid the totally perfect product already exists and is very cheap and easily available.


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## ianrauk (24 Oct 2010)

Plastic supermarket bag, cheap, folds up tiny and can carry under the seat by tucking in the seat rails.
No need for anything else.


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## Arch (24 Oct 2010)

Also, specific saddle covers have been made anyway - Brooks (who make leather saddles), do one for theirs, that velcros to the saddle rails for storage. And at the last York Cycling festival, I picked up a couple of Cycling City branded covers, which incidentally could be worn as hats. Depending on which way round you wore it, you looked like Norman Wisdom, or Nelson (neither of whom our OP will of heard of, I suspect. )


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## zigzag (24 Oct 2010)

plastic oveshoes can be used to cover the saddle, they are perfectly sized, have a rubber band and foldup tiny. i carry one in a little plastic puncture repair box - it fills up the space and prevents other stuff from rattling.


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## Fab Foodie (24 Oct 2010)

ianrauk said:


> Plastic supermarket bag, cheap, folds up tiny and can carry under the seat by tucking in the seat rails.
> No need for anything else.



Same here. And they come in lots of lovely colours...


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## Granville Kuosonsavath (24 Oct 2010)

Davidc said:


> Shower cap. Found in all good hotel rooms. Perfect for the job. Throw in the bin after use. Keep in the tool wallet or 5 can be tucked under a Brooks B17 seat above the rails.
> 
> If you need more than you can collect from hotels they're £1.00 per 50 online, individually boxed
> 
> I'm afraid the totally perfect product already exists and is very cheap and easily available.



..and for that reason, I'm out.


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## Sheffield_Tiger (26 Oct 2010)

How about a dynamo-powered 12v hairdryer mounted to a bracket to blow-dry and warm up your saddle, yust stand up for the first couple of miles than sit on a nice warm seat.

What do you mean overengineered?

More seriously, I'd take a look at packaway jackets, one solution might be a simple elasticated hem saddle cover in a packaway bag that just velcro fixes to the seatpost/saddle rails

What you DON'T want to do is mean the end user has to choose between either/or a saddle cover or a small under-saddle toolkit etc..


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## snorri (26 Oct 2010)

halesya said:


> 1. bike seat that opens through a locking hinge to reveal
> .
> 2. under seat attachment that can be tucked away under the seat or pulled out to cover the seat and is water resistant. Much like the bike fanny packs, .
> 
> ANY thoughts, criticism, suggestions, etc are more than welcome! I hope to hear back from some of you! Thanks



Ok, constructive criticism.
option 1 "Bike seat opens through a locking hinge". As soon as I read about the introduction of moving parts to a component (seat) which operates effectively without moving parts, I worry. Moving parts are a fault liability.

option 2 "bike fanny packs" :?:  :?:  :?:  Some Americanisms don't travel too well, by the time they've reached this side of the Atlantic they can sound quite rude.


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## alecstilleyedye (27 Oct 2010)

it's only leather saddles that need covering anyway, as synthetics are waterproof and can be dried with the wipe of a hand/tissue/rag etc. relatively few bikes these days have leather saddles…


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## skudupnorth (27 Oct 2010)

Mirror covers that come with all new Porsche Cayenne's when they are delivered to my workplace ! Perfect size and water resistant with velcro strap....those German's think of everything !!!!


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## Tigerbiten (27 Oct 2010)

I use a 70 liter rucksack cover to keep me seat dry.
It work ok unless the rain blows in under it.
Then I get a wet bum .........  

Ps:- I ride a bent ..........


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## Davidc (27 Oct 2010)

Don't think so Mr Paul. A Brooks saddle that's been properly kept, or is one of those that's factory treated, will put up with anything (except mice). The only reason for covering a Brooks saddle is to avoid a wet bum.


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## dav1d (27 Oct 2010)

I have a 57 year old Brooks saddle that's fine apart from two small tears at the back.


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## Davidc (27 Oct 2010)

[QUOTE 1226846"]
Brooks saddles begin to melt at the mere sight of fluid in the distance. They've also been known to collapse at the slightest parp of vegetarian flatulate. 

Brooks saddles are rubbish. I've never needed to properly keep any of my saddles and they've not let me down.
[/quote]

Funny - I've been using them since 1967 and the only problems I've had are theft and being chewed up by a mouse. They're the most durable bike component there is, and the only seat that's comfortable for use 14 hours a day for 16 days on the trot, straight out of the box. (That was the replacement for the chewed one).

In my experiene Brooks saddles are totally oblivious to rain from above and spray from below. Not sure about vegetarian flatulence, I can only vouch for resistance to the carnivorous type.


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## martint235 (27 Oct 2010)

Davidc said:


> Funny - I've been using them since 1967 and the only problems I've had are theft and being chewed up by a mouse. They're the most durable bike component there is, and the only seat that's comfortable for use 14 hours a day for 16 days on the trot, straight out of the box. (That was the replacement for the chewed one).
> 
> *In my experiene Brooks saddles are totally oblivious to rain from above and spray from below. *Not sure about vegetarian flatulence, I can only vouch for resistance to the carnivorous type.



Being relatively new to the Brooks saddle (mine has done around 1,700 miles since beginning of August) I've been covering it with a carrier bag if it looked like it would get rained on in the car park at work. It said not to get it wet in the book, do I not need to bother?

And +1 to it being comfortable straight out the box. The first outing for mine was a 160 miler.


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## Davidc (27 Oct 2010)

martint235 said:


> Being relatively new to the Brooks saddle (mine has done around 1,700 miles since beginning of August) I've been covering it with a carrier bag if it looked like it would get rained on in the car park at work. It said not to get it wet in the book, do I not need to bother?
> 
> And +1 to it being comfortable straight out the box. The first outing for mine was a 160 miler.



Undoubtedly good advice, which I try to follow for everything on a bike, at least at the level of drying them when I get in if they get wet.

Mine (Brooks saddles) have got well wetted many times, but they've all had the proofide stuff put on them as instructed and also on the underside, so water just runs off. As I said above I carry shower caps to keep the saddle dry if it's raining - for my benefit not the saddle's - so soaking doesn't happen often to either the Brooks or to the plastic one on the mtb. I don't think riding in the wet without mudguards would be the best of ideas either, but I don't so no problem there either.


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## Davidc (27 Oct 2010)

[QUOTE 1226850"]
That's another reason not to buy a Brookes -dogs like to chew them. they think they're those shrivelled pigs ears.
[/quote]
Don't keep dogs so not likely to be a problem.

If you wan't to ride round on a plastic saddle that's fine by me - less demand for leather ones means lower costs if I ever need another one.

Unless my present Brooks gets stolen I'm expecting it to outlast me so that's not really an issue, but I might decide to buy another if I do as I keep threatening to and change the mtb for a trekking bike ....

BTW The saddle was minor compared to some of the damage that mouse did.


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## theclaud (27 Oct 2010)

Heh heh. You're on excellent form on this thread, Mr Paul!


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## Canardly (31 Oct 2010)

Superdrug 3 x bathing/shower caps £1.99


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