Stevan Thomas wrote:
>
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> Interestingly, there was an Italian named Bitinni who modified Brooks saddles
> to lower that height advantage. He thought it didn't look right, so he
> shortened the rear frame where it went into the cantle plate, and reworked
> the leather to soften it. According to the oldsters who told Matteo the
> story, the pros used to line up to get their saddles worked on. I've seen
> pictures of one.
Modifying leather saddles was very common before the advent of the Unicanitor (Italy) plastic saddle in 1959; England and Italy (don't know about other countries but it had to be common). You had it done custom at your local shop (if it was a good one) and switched that saddle from bike to bike and never let it out of your sight.
Riding Manuals written in England in the early 50s had very complete instructions on Saddle Butchering.
Chuck Schmidt SoPas, SoCal
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