you recognize this saddle ? Italia Flite Ti ?

max39

Dirt Disciple
Italia Flite ? His weight is 203 g. It seems like a Flite but what is cover on it ? I think that rails are made with titanium. Do you think that the body is made with carbon ? There is foam between the body and the cover.

 
That is a modified Flite Evolution 1.

The base and rails are an Evo 1.

BUT, someone glued on a cover and padding. They wanted light weight but they made it weigh more than the regular Flite.
 
salesguy":gm5ytaca said:
That is a modified Flite Evolution 1.

The base and rails are an Evo 1.

BUT, someone glued on a cover and padding. They wanted light weight but they made it weigh more than the regular Flite.

:D Thank you very much. Do you think that it will be possible to take off the cover and so have the original facture ?
 
I think the "cover" is there for a reason. The original surface will be badly scratched I would guess.

Besides that: Controlled heat might help with the glue.
 
Max39,

I would be surprised if the cover came off easily. Although, you never know.
Depending on the age of the glue and how well it was put on, you may be able to remove it.
Usually carbon is cured around 200 to 250 to 280 degrees depending on the epoxy used. If you keep the heat low enough, you may be able to remove the cover. You can try it. Maybe use a hair dryer VS a heat gun.

If the surfaces scratched or something, you could always refinish it with some wet sanding and then re-clearing of the saddle. I have had to re-clear an Evolution 2 model before. And I just re-glued the saddle cradle on an Evolution 3. The epoxy was so old that it popped free from the base. Your's you don't have to worry about that though as the rail mounts are in molded into the saddle itself.

Can't hurt to try it if it was cheap enough. But that is and was an excellent saddle.

Show us the results if you try and do it. By the way, that saddle had a weight of around 140/150gr when it was new. The Evo 2 was claimed at 99 but came in around 115/120 and the Evo 3 was around 125/135. The regular Flit with leather and padding was 190 to 200 grams. Some of the later versions had a bit more padding and reached upwards of the 220/230 gram weight range.

How that helps.
 
salesguy":17zpgjp3 said:
Max39,

I would be surprised if the cover came off easily. Although, you never know.
Depending on the age of the glue and how well it was put on, you may be able to remove it.
Usually carbon is cured around 200 to 250 to 280 degrees depending on the epoxy used. If you keep the heat low enough, you may be able to remove the cover. You can try it. Maybe use a hair dryer VS a heat gun.

If the surfaces scratched or something, you could always refinish it with some wet sanding and then re-clearing of the saddle. I have had to re-clear an Evolution 2 model before. And I just re-glued the saddle cradle on an Evolution 3. The epoxy was so old that it popped free from the base. Your's you don't have to worry about that though as the rail mounts are in molded into the saddle itself.

Can't hurt to try it if it was cheap enough. But that is and was an excellent saddle.

Show us the results if you try and do it. By the way, that saddle had a weight of around 140/150gr when it was new. The Evo 2 was claimed at 99 but came in around 115/120 and the Evo 3 was around 125/135. The regular Flit with leather and padding was 190 to 200 grams. Some of the later versions had a bit more padding and reached upwards of the 220/230 gram weight range.

How that helps.

Nice. Thank you very much for your demonstration. Perhaps I will try to take off the cover. If I work carefully, perhaps it will be possible to reset the cover if the body is too bad...
 
MAx39,

Even if the main base/shell/cover of this saddle is bad, you can refinish it. I've done it to an Evo 2 twice. It has less clear coat and is thinner than the EVO 1 and 3. So the center section gets really thin and needs recleared.

This saddle is just carbon. Unless the carbon is actually physically damaged, there is no reason that you couldn't just refinish the base under the padding/cover.
If there saddle was damaged though, the actual carbon, you would see any cracks on the underside usually.

I would be surprised if the person didn't just think it needed padding OR didn't realize it was supposed to be that way and think maybe someone took the original padding off and he was essentially restoring it to original.

You can find pictures online of that the three versions look like and see how the original would've looked.

I will say, whomever did the covering did an excellent looking job. Looks professionally done.
 
salesguy":3lhc08aq said:
MAx39,

Even if the main base/shell/cover of this saddle is bad, you can refinish it. I've done it to an Evo 2 twice. It has less clear coat and is thinner than the EVO 1 and 3. So the center section gets really thin and needs recleared.

This saddle is just carbon. Unless the carbon is actually physically damaged, there is no reason that you couldn't just refinish the base under the padding/cover.
If there saddle was damaged though, the actual carbon, you would see any cracks on the underside usually.

I would be surprised if the person didn't just think it needed padding OR didn't realize it was supposed to be that way and think maybe someone took the original padding off and he was essentially restoring it to original.

You can find pictures online of that the three versions look like and see how the original would've looked.

I will say, whomever did the covering did an excellent looking job. Looks professionally done.

Hi Saleguy
You are an expert !!
You have good answer for all my question and more !!
I took off the cover. As you said, it was an excellent job with 2 type of foam : one light, one more hard.
Here is the saddle in his original look. His weight is 146 g. With the white logo it is what model ?
I am sincerely grateful. If you are looking after some part or if you need help for decals (I am graphic design) you can call me.


 
WOW!!! Excellent condition on that after removing the cover. Glad I could help with it.

The original version had white, red and goldish/yellow colored Selle Itallia Flite logos. The white was a later version. Not a bad thing. It's still an excellent saddle. It is just another generation of the same one.
They did realist them after the Flite Evo 2 came out cause people wanted it. That's the generation you have.
Again, not a bad thing, just a different generation of the same saddle.

Take some polishing compound to the carbon and it will really shine!
 
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