Thu, 19 Jun 2003 06:44:29 GMT, <hZcIa.384$%d4.67079362@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com>, "Mike
Jacoubowsky" <mikej1@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>>
http://www.classicrendezvous.com/Fra...le_alloy90.htm
>
>Same saddle I have on my rain bike. Surprisingly comfortable, even with the sag that it's acquired
>across the middle (due to mistreatment; it is a rain bike, after all!).
>Can't even guess how far back that saddle & I go.
I believe it was my first experience of blind bike lust.
It was 1971 and I was working in a bicycle shop. Europe couldn't keep up with the demand. Bikes and
parts were scarce. Another shop up the street was able to get six Ideale 90 Rebour signature models.
I wasn't high enough in the pecking order of mechanics and racers to get one. I rationalised that my
garden variety model 90 would just be getting broken-in while their pre-softened ones were starting
to wear out but I sure wanted one.
I was building up my semi-pro Mercier by changing a few parts to Campagnolo. I had the pedals
swapped and was praying the next shipment from Italy would have a seat post my size when the bike
was stolen. One of the last remaining pro frames in the city was a Mercian, in my size and a
gawdawful metallic orchid colour. I needed a bike so I bought it and started scrounging parts.
I used Campy everywhere, some new, some second hand. I went to buy another Ideale 90 but they were
all gone. Believing that the French know more about comfort than the British I didn't want to settle
for a Brooks Pro.
Through the grapevine I heard one of the local hot shots had finally gotten his Bob Jackson but
couldn't locate a Campy seat post for it. As it happened, he had one of those six saddles I coveted.
My seat post fit his frame but, of course,it wouldn't fit the saddle. We traded. To him it was more
important to have a reliable seat post.
I rode that bike hard for about three years before the clamp broke and about two years with jury
rigged clamps until I gave-up and switched to Italian plastic. That bike was stolen.
When I built up my next bikes I couldn't get to get a new clamp or Zeus seat post so the Ideale sat
unused from about 1977 until July 2000.
That's when I fitted it with a steel clamp off a saddle that had molded plastic rails and stuck it
on my tourer.
It's in excellent shape for a saddle thirty two years old.
--
zk
The most comfortable seat I've had was...? (For roadies) 
I, like many of you, don't have a ton of body fat so I
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