Some years ago, I bought a battle scarred and time weary rubber Dunlop competition saddle from John Hartshorne. Last year, as it finally decided that it couldn’t support its own weight any longer (let alone mine), I replaced it with one of the fibreglass pan based ‘Sammy Miller’ type that I bought at least 25 years ago. As these were well known for their exciting tendency to fracture during use using the original mounting system (potentially deploying an unexpected high speed genital acupuncture treatment), I created a forth bridge type framework underneath it to strengthen it. This created a completely unyielding saddle which has a mass not unsimilar to that of a collapsed black hole. I haven’t calculated the percentage of power that is needed to propel the saddle but it must be considerable and once it achieves a harmonic movement, the effect to the handling of the bike is nothing short of terrifying.
In short, I would like to source a mint NOS vintage rubber Dunlop competition saddle at 1930’s prices …or failing that, another decrepit, split, beaten up example which might still have a couple of years left in it, but that happened to be (possibly) Ex Billy Benson who once sat next to a guy on a bus who had been to the TT (or so he said), thus commanding a price requiring organ sales.
Something with neither the intoxifying interest of historical narrative nor the benefit of aesthetic beauty would be preferable as it would not only be actually used (if not in anger, in a state of perpetual underlying frustration) but doubtless be further abused by being ignominiously thrown down the road as part of it’s life on my racer, which is now running extremely well on dope and with which I intend to compete a few times this year.
Many thanks.
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