Hello!
How can I make this carbon rail for a bike saddle?
Not sure myself, but let me suggest something.
You’re not likely to get this saddle as light, safely, as the companies producing them en masse. They’ve designed them, they’ve destructive tested them, they have a reasonable factor of safety built into the unit. And remember…most saddles fail at the rails when they do.
That said, use TI or Chro-Mo instead. It will remove an unknown from your project, improve your factor of safety, and simplify things overall.
Remember, you’re not going to shatter any weight records on a one-off project like this, so compromise on the side of safety.
I know I wouldn’t like getting broken carbon rails removed from my nutsack…or having them go in there in the first place!
That’s just my $.02
1: that would NOT be a fun seat to use on a long trip!..ouch.
2: someone was attempting that on here recently. The rails i’m sure, are NOT 100% carbon, but have some sort of mandrel inside…be it foam, or metal. That way you can more accurately wrap the carbon (prepreg I’m sure), around it and put into a mold.
The seat itself, can’t be too hard. It’s just knowing how to lay up the fibers the right way. Joint looks almost like the rails and saddle were bonded with more carbon bits in a secondary cure cycle. I’ve done that with tubes and plates before. Not neat looking, but works.
Back to #1…don’t know what riding this seat is for, but maybe you aren’t really sitting ON the seat much? Or not much weight is placed on it.
As I think about it, it’s very likely a mandrel wrapped in Carbon…think about it…the rail is clamped onto the seatpost. Pure carbon would be crushed in that application.
I have just make a carbon saddle with original titan/steel rail and work very well form my personal usage.
Now I would like to try a make saddle more light and I think thant 70 gr for steel rail it’s too much for a very light saddle, so I want only to try.
Yes I think can I use some internal core for the rail and wrapped over with carbon sock but I can I do the shape of the rail with foam for example?
PS: if you have a trained ass with right shorts, you can ride on carbon saddle for seven hour on french alps. trust me 
some pics:
1: foam could work, but you will have to be VEEEERY gentle wrapping, or it will break, and make sure when you cure, nothing moves or warps (ie: stick in a 2 part mold to retain postcured shape)
2: i never thought about training my arse. Even with a LoveSeat(forget who) on my DH bike, i was never able to sit in it for long!
Measure the distance between the 2 pointy bones that you sit on and get a saddle that matches. Using one that is too wide is just as uncomfortable as one that is too narrow. As with the bike as a whole, it needs to match your anatomy and riding style.
As for the rails, I thought about using thin walled CF tubing. Cut and bond to shape as a mandrel and wrap over the top. Haven’t tried it yet but will at some point.
Cheers
DB
I know this is an old post but I was at a test institute last week to get some frames tested and the owner had many CF bike parts including a seat that had been cut open. No names on the seat but the rails were solid UD wrapped with 2 or 3 layers of +/- 45* braid to keep it together.
Hope this helps and is not too late.
Cheers
DB
Those saddles look amazing and very cool. I just don’t think I could sit on one for more than 10 minutes… ouch.
I would still make the seat rails out of metal and wrap with one layer of braided cf for the “look”. We are only talking about 2 ounces of weight savings on the rails.