I decided that Early Light deserved something better and ordered a new Edson cover kit from Defender Industries. They are available in either tan or dove grey. I opted for the dove grey. The kit comes complete with double faced tape, thread already coated with beeswax and a sailmakers needle. The leather is prepunched so the sewing goes quite easily. I removed the original cover by cutting the stitching with an X-acto knife. When I started to peel off the original cover, it was so dry and brittle that it just broke in pieces. I cleaned up the wheel as can be seen in the photo below.

Material required:

Edson leather wheel kit for 30" wheel ($95.00 from Defender)

Total cost of this project: $95.00

I took the wheel home to the comfort of the air conditioning since the temperature was 99 degrees F and the relative humidity was extremely high. In the comfort of my living room, I spent approximately 3.5 hours sewing the new cover on the wheel using the same stitch used to sew a baseball cover. The below photograph shows the completed project. I was very pleased with the results.