There were rubber saddles going way back. Dunlop made one for British Roadster type bikes and I'm sure there are other examples and earlier attempts. Leather saddles were relatively expense and vulnerable to the weather so there was a desire to try new methods.
Of course, the plastic saddle on thinks of in the CR world is the Unica or Unica Nitor,
http://www.classicrendezvous.com/
, which I suppose came out in the early 1960s. In the US, at least, it took a while for these to catch on, even on Cinellis!
As to the Unica, I have an early one with a tensioner and stickers on the bottom rather than just molded ID. It also has a slightly wider profile. When would that date from?
Joe Bender-Zanoni
Great Notch, NJ
> I'd like an approximate year when plastic seats
\r?\n> started being placed on good road bikes and what
\r?\n> manufacturer lead the way.
\r?\n> Don Wilson
\r?\n> Los Olivos,CA
\r?\n>
\r?\n> D.C. Wilson dcwilson3@yahoo.com
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