RE: [CR]Wrights & Lycett saddles

(Example: Framebuilding:Brazing Technique)

In-Reply-To: <cb9.10f5b6c9.33681ade@aol.com>
From: "Tony Colegrave" <tony_colegrave@hotmail.com>
To: Stronglight49@aol.com
Subject: RE: [CR]Wrights & Lycett saddles
Date: Wed, 02 May 2007 00:29:41 +0000
cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org

Both Wrights and Lycetts were established companies in the last decade of the nineteenth century. Lycetts were certainly producing high-class cycle saddles in the very early 1890's (their 'La-Grande' range was as good as anything produced by Brooks), but they seem to have wasted much time and resource producing a variety of pneumatic models - a mistake that Brooks appear to have avoided. In the first decade of the the twentieth century they acquired the saddle-making business of the Brampton company (another high-class and innovative product), but lost an important Court case brought against them by Brooks - presumably in respect of infringement of patent/registered design rights. I've been unable to find any advertisements for their products for several years subsequently, and it appears to me that they concentrated largely on making fairly basic saddles, 'badged-up' in the names of various large cycle manufacturers (e.g. Rudge-Whitworth). Their 'own name' saddles re-appeared more commonly in the 1930's, and are generally of poorish quality. During this period they also manufactured their versions of the increasingly popular 'mattress' saddle, including alloy-framed 'Aero' models. Although Brooks appear to claim, in some of their current 'history', to have taken the company over sometime in the 1920's, I'm quite sure that Lycett was still 'independant' (of Brooks, at any rate) in the late 1930's, and was probably absorbed during/after the war. The Brooks/Lycett saddles are nearly all, if not entirely, cheaper versions of the B.17 range - very much like the B.15's. Until fairly recently, I'd accepted the general view that the Wright Saddle Co., which was already a well-established equestrian saddler in the late 1800's, had not been involved in the cycle business until the late 1920's/early 1930's., but, during the last few years, I've had occasion to restore a couple of their(?) saddles which seemed to be much earlier - typically pre-1910 pattern. Looking at an advertisement, from about the time of the 1948 London Olympics, I noted that they claimed to have been 'cycle saddlers for over 50 years', but have so far been unable to find any hard evidence to confirm this. Anent to this, I'd remark that some of Brooks' current advertising implies that they've been 'cycle saddlers since 1866', when, as I'm sure we all know, they actually started that work in 1883. The vast majority of 'pre-Brooks' Wrights saddles are the 'mattress' variety, and, so far as I'm concerned, they only ever made one decent range of leather saddles to compare with Brooks'. Even with their leather saddles, they were unable to entirely discard the 'mattress' style - the Swallow-type 'Olympian' must surely rate as one of the most mis-conceved creations in any sphere? I'd guess that Brooks absorbed Wrights some time mid/late fifties (perhaps part of the British Cycle Corp./Raleigh Industries merger - when did that take place?), and all the subsequent 'Wrights' products were of pretty poor quality - mostly 'racing' saddles for bottom-of-the-range bikes. Tony Colegrave. Northiam, E.Sussex, U.K.


>From: Stronglight49@aol.com
>To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
>Subject: [CR]Wrights & Lycette saddles - Info Please?
>Date: Tue, 1 May 2007 00:23:58 EDT
>
>Someone please do correct me if I am mistaken. My understanding was that
>the Lycette and Wrights marques may have once existed as independent
>manufacturers, and later each may have been bought out by Brooks which
>continued to
>market (and/or manufacture) them as secondary or budget lines for quite
>some
>time before each was eventually retired.
>
>Does anyone know the approximate dates of either Wrights or Lycette's
>manufacture... from their origins, through the possible Brooks affiliation,
> until
>their ultimate end?
>
>Appreciate any solid information on these saddles which seem to be fairly
>common - even in the US - and which also seem to have held up quite well
>over
>the years, at least judging from the few examples I own.
>
>Thanks!
>Bob Hanson, Albuquerque, NM, USA
>
>
>
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