It's strange how people come and go from writing blogs and I'm guessing there's normally a good reason. I had a bit of an impasse from writing as life's adventure sometimes takes over. Moving region and personal health issues can change one's situation. Fortunately for me life is still amazing, fun and weird and set to become even more adventurous, despite having had some scary health issues.
Having attended the local hospital emergency one Sunday afternoon in February 2017, I was immediately admitted and had three operations saving me from another life threatening illness.
The short story: I'm alive and still have my leg but no longer have a strong enough foot to lift my bike from its stand with my fiancé sitting on the back, or the confidence to support us at a stop. Earlier this year, having been discharged from hospital, we decided to organise a p/x deal on our beloved Harley Switchback FLD for a Harley Freewheeler Trike. A six month wait seemed a short period of time in the scheme of things to recover before collecting the Trike! Five months has passed and the foot still recovers. The Trike has arrived at the dealer in Toulouse, France and our excitement grows for September when we collect it!
The positive mental attitude I have for day to day life has kept my enthusiasm going. I decided that as always I would try to personalise our trike as I've always done with my other bikes. Having plenty of time to think about how I might initially start to do this with a Trike that I wouldn't take delivery of for six months presented me with a quandary. So I decided that I would make a custom hand-tooled leather seat with matching pillion pad to initially personalise our ride. Once able a few months ago I visited the dealership and made some basic cardboard seat templates based on a showroom model. A few months passed and I collected the Harley pillion pad followed by the actual seat from my bike a month ago.
Starting any project takes imagination and planning and it's been over ten years since I made my last custom seat. It was a hand-tooled leather solo seat which I designed and made, in which process I learned a raft of tricks and techniques. The seat I had planned for the Freewheeler was in my mind going to be much more sophisticated and unique - a proper saddle which would be a work of art to reflect our personalities and individualism.
The main challenges of the project included the overall size of the large two-up saddle and the large curved pillion backrest pad. I wanted to make the lacing look like a braid and to be really strong and durable. I used thirty metres of Kangaroo lace in total for both saddle and pillion as it is incredibly strong; vegetable tan leather 4mm thick for the hand-tooling surface areas; with 1.4mm veg tan for side skirts. Only two dyes were used for staining to maximise the overall blend of colours: a British saddle tan and mahogany. Both colours compliment each other and will look amazing on our Velocity Red Freewheeler which we have decided to name 'FreeSpirit'.
The initial designs took approximately a week to work out and another solid week to carve and tool. I think the whole project has taken approximately one month's man hours to complete, although I have produced these over a two-month period.
Having attended the local hospital emergency one Sunday afternoon in February 2017, I was immediately admitted and had three operations saving me from another life threatening illness.
The short story: I'm alive and still have my leg but no longer have a strong enough foot to lift my bike from its stand with my fiancé sitting on the back, or the confidence to support us at a stop. Earlier this year, having been discharged from hospital, we decided to organise a p/x deal on our beloved Harley Switchback FLD for a Harley Freewheeler Trike. A six month wait seemed a short period of time in the scheme of things to recover before collecting the Trike! Five months has passed and the foot still recovers. The Trike has arrived at the dealer in Toulouse, France and our excitement grows for September when we collect it!
The positive mental attitude I have for day to day life has kept my enthusiasm going. I decided that as always I would try to personalise our trike as I've always done with my other bikes. Having plenty of time to think about how I might initially start to do this with a Trike that I wouldn't take delivery of for six months presented me with a quandary. So I decided that I would make a custom hand-tooled leather seat with matching pillion pad to initially personalise our ride. Once able a few months ago I visited the dealership and made some basic cardboard seat templates based on a showroom model. A few months passed and I collected the Harley pillion pad followed by the actual seat from my bike a month ago.
Starting any project takes imagination and planning and it's been over ten years since I made my last custom seat. It was a hand-tooled leather solo seat which I designed and made, in which process I learned a raft of tricks and techniques. The seat I had planned for the Freewheeler was in my mind going to be much more sophisticated and unique - a proper saddle which would be a work of art to reflect our personalities and individualism.
The main challenges of the project included the overall size of the large two-up saddle and the large curved pillion backrest pad. I wanted to make the lacing look like a braid and to be really strong and durable. I used thirty metres of Kangaroo lace in total for both saddle and pillion as it is incredibly strong; vegetable tan leather 4mm thick for the hand-tooling surface areas; with 1.4mm veg tan for side skirts. Only two dyes were used for staining to maximise the overall blend of colours: a British saddle tan and mahogany. Both colours compliment each other and will look amazing on our Velocity Red Freewheeler which we have decided to name 'FreeSpirit'.
I'm thrilled with how it has worked out despite getting stressed with mistakes made along the way. I'm a perfectionist!
The following link shows the creative journey of the saddle:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/101580165@N08/
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