Foldable Bikes Party: Selle Italia says there's life in the leather saddle yet

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With impeccable timing, the Selle Italia brand has been reborn with a range of three leather saddles made using their old machines and a "whiff of today's technology", plus matching saddle bags and lock-on grips.

We say impeccable because they were revealed to BikeRadar today at the headquarters of Selle Italia near Venice, the same day that a stage of the Giro d'Italia finishes right in their backyard.

Given the long ties between the Italian grand tour and the saddle brand, it seems to make sense. After all, when Fausto, Gino and Tommy would fly up the Dolomites on steel road bikes, what saddles would they be riding? That's right, leather ones.

So what are these new handmade saddles, and why has the Selle Italia brand been rebooted with them? Let's dive in…

Three new leather saddles

There's a race saddle called the Storica, a classic endurance saddle called the Mitica, and a trekking saddle called the Epoca. All are made with three layers of fabric: a bottom leather layer, then a mesh in the middle, and an upper leather layer to finish. Selle Italia says that, once pressed together, these three materials can better resist deformation and last longer than a single sheet of leather.