Beaver News #70 – April 9, 2018

In this week’s video Mark shows you some really nice looking motorbike saddlebags. They are promoted and sold as leather but they are made from imitation leather. 

Our customer brought them in because the straps started to rip where they were connected to the flap.

This is what happens with imitation leather, it’s not strong enough to handle the simple movement of opening and closing the bags and the weight of the buckle. It is now like perforated paper. 

Mark replaced the straps with new ones that he made from real leather. They are doubled with motorcycle leather on the outside and a good vegetable tanned cowhide on the inside. 

These new straps have a lot of integrity and durability like this, and they got hand-stitched onto the saddlebags so the stitching does not come apart. 

You can see at the end, the new straps match the saddlebags perfectly. Check it out.