At 10:16 PM 12/17/2000 -0500, Sheldon Brown wrote:
><snip>
>
>SB: "A more interesting question to me is whether the bolt should go in
>front of or behind the seatpost. For any modern ideas of fitting, the
>bolt needs to go behind the post, but if you look at old illustrations,
>the saddles were very commonly placed much farther forward, with the bolt
>in front of the seatpost, or even cantilevered forward on a "7" shaped
>seatpost with a forward-facing horizontal extension.
I haven't measured a bunch of old photos, but regularly ride one Paramount (?) from the 30s. To me, the important differences include a much more relaxed seat tube angle. This means that the saddle is way back (relative to the bottom bracket) if the clip is mounted behind the saddle, modern-style.
For the last 25 years or so, I have ridden it with the clip back. Now, perhaps as a concession to age and loss of agility, the saddle is pretty far forward on its rails, which tends to emulate the position with the clip forward of the post.
Harvey Sachs