I'm pretty sure a Fujita saddle came on my Proteus, which was made in the mid-70's. The bike originally had a mixture of Campy and high quality Japanese components. The first thing to fail on it was the saddle; it was comfortable enough after it broke me in but one of the steel rails fractured after a few years - and that's when I was 20 pounds lighter. No doubt it was an isolated bad apple but my Brooks saddle has held up a lot longer.
Gary Chottiner, Northeast Ohio
- where I was able to bike to work Monday and Tuesday for the first time in a month, but snow covered the roads again last night. _____
In a message dated 2/11/04 6:43:26 AM, mail at woodworkingboy.com
http://www.bikelist.org/
> Man, the
> leather on these is hard as a rock! Either of these saddles ever make it
> over to your side of the pond?
>
> Hope the ofuro relieves the posterior pain.
>
> Dennis Young
> Hotaka, Japan
>
Hi, Dennis,
Yeah, I remember the Fujita saddles from mid 60's in Japan. They are very high quality "copy" of Brooks all the way. I had one exactly like Brooks Professional. It was very high quality and durable.
But, I do not think many of them made jump to the other side of Pacific, I have not seen any Fujita but some "Belt" brand name. Is there any connection to those two?
Anyway, during 60's, Japanese hardly import anything from overseas, because they had to pay 360 to 400 yean to each dollar while yo pay only 106 yen today. This means I had to pay 3 times more money for Brooks saddle at taht time. Check Japanese history for currency exchange, they paid 864 yen to British one pound in 1970. Today, Japanese Yen worht 4 times better to US dollar and almost 7.5 times to ritish pound! No wonder they are buying old suff back!
Regards to all,
KEN TODA, High Point, NC, 33rd year since I jumped over Pacific Ocean!