Has anyone else out there thought about drilling out the Viscount saddle. I recently took mine off the seat post and its quite heavy. It has a solid steel plate so I got to thinking about drilling it.
Would this compramise the strenght of the seat?
Any other thoughts or comments would be great.
Chex
They do weigh a ton, don’t they? Is most of that in the plate? Is there a plastic base, too, or is the seat shape determined by the plate itself? Drill it, Viscounts are cheap. If the diameter of the holes is 4 times the spacing between the hole edges, you will remove about half the weight. Another way to put it is that for a hole diameter of d, the spacing between the centers of the holes should be 1.25d on a square grid to remove about half the weight. This removes alot of material and would take alot of time, even with a drill press. Trying to drill even thin steel plate with a hand drill is tedious.
what is better, lotts of little holes? or just a few large ones?
If there is a plastic base, drill big holes in the steel plate because the plastic forms the seating surface and it will still be comfortable. If the only base is the steel plate, drill small ones for comfort.
It’s all steel, baby.
-C
I think I drilled up a Schwinn seat base once. I don’t have it any more and I can’t remember the details. At that time I also drilled up a Schwinn frame and seat post. Those were beautiflly chromed by a place that did the three pieces for $24! That was the best custom chrome job I’ve ever had done, but that place was out of business before I could ever go back to them.
The highest area of stress on the Schwinn/Viscount seat is going to be immediately to the sides of, and in front of where the post attaches. Don’t cut away too much there. But you can probably swiss cheese it quite a bit at the front and back with no loss of structural integrity.
I think lots of small holes will be safer than fewer big ones. They may not take off as much weight, but it’s a safer way to go.
Why drill up a Viscount? Why not use a plastic seat that’s lighter? Okay, if I apply the same question to myself, I guess it was because that’s what I had handy, and a Miyata seat wasn’t going to fit my Schwinn post anyway. Uh, plus, you couldn’t get a Miyata seat then (1981).
Disclaimer: I haven’t seen a Viscount base without the foam, and am assuming it’s similar to the old Schwinn/Semcycle design.