Motorcycles and bicycles

Repair and restore this old, hand made vintage tank bag

Two 1920s vintage Brooks motorcycle saddles from the famous British brand. This job was to replace the leather which had deteriorated. The leather was wet molded, the Brooks badge embossed on, the brass Brooks badges fixed on and then dyed and sewn by hand.

Famous British motorbike and bicycle saddle maker since 1866! The leather was replaced by moulding and shaping the new leather. An antique dye was used to colour the leather and techniques I use to make it look antique. The leather was hand stitched with linen thread to stay in keeping with this antique item.

This saddle had worn and torn leather (probably the original). I made the new leather cover with natural veg tanned leather, hand dyed with an antique dye and then hand stitched.

The bicycle is fairly easy to date as a year or two later they started using metal rims instead of the wooden ones. This is possibly made by John Starley for Ariel in around 1869, right at the start of the bicycle age in the UK.

An Italian Selle bicycle saddle. The old material was removed and replaced with Goat Skin.