Revitalizing saddlebags

[BlackDragon]

My brother in law helped someone buy a motorcycle and told him I do leather work and I might be able to fix his saddlebags.

The pastor works with people in bikers in recovery so depending how bad the bags were I could do it. I decided not to charge him because he dosen't have a lot of resources and especially because he bought the same bike I have (Yamaha V Star).

The bags are pretty cheap genuine leather, probably in the $100 range. Some of the seams have begun to come apart, the rivets are either pulled through the leather or completey rusted, some of the conchos are missing and the tassels are ripped off. On the back, the leather for the tie offs were so thin (.70mm)they probably ripped off the first time they tied the bags to the bike. They only had one tie off point at the bottom and the previous ower made extra holes to use zipties.

I restitched the corners, since some of the old rivets pulled through I used #9 copper rivets to reenforce the stitching, I added new conchos and tassels. On the back I added 2 extra tie off points and used 10oz with D-rings.

[chuck123wapati]

you have a good heart friend and they look great too. 

[TomE]

Nicely done!  Craftsmanship and kindness are a winning combination.