Jaouen, thank you for this perspective. I've been reading CR for a few years now and I never knew some saddles were so rare.
I have a 92 Diagonale D. Rebour which is in very good condition. I can recognize the quality, but it never became comfortable for me, since I bought it new in 1984.
On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 4:40 PM, jaouen BAZIN <jaouenbazin@free.fr> wrote:
> Hello, Jerry ,Ken, Jay, Leonard
> i'm the seller of Ideale leather cover on ebay.
> I collect this many years ago from Ideale factory.
> they was keeped at factory, some are not past control quality (double
> stamped, leather color, scare etc), some are protopype, some have rivet
> holes but not mount, some are mount on wrong frame etc and of course some
> are just no mount and perfect!
> I don't think ideale provided only leather on bicyle shop , but you can
> return them on Ideale factory to change leather or frame.
> FT change to TB around 1945 but the both coexiste during some years.
> FT= Francois Tron?? i don't know probably Norris or Jan can tell it
> About price, Ideale saddle 57FT (1st type 1936 called "cretirium des
> alpes")
> is the most rarer and the best Ideale saddle. Ideale 57FT was mount on the
> best Herse, Singer, etc bicycle, can be sold for 8000-10000$. With an used
> bike from 40's-50's you can made a new paint, new decals, new chrome,
> polish
> aluminium, but one thing you can't refurbished: saddle and saddle logo. So
> i
> understand for a 8000$ value bicycle buy a new leather cover for 500$ is
> not
> sensless. You can't have a new bike without a new saddle. Finaly he value
> of
> the bike is the saddle condition.
> And, sorry for that, dollar value is actualy very low. 1$=0.67eur=90yen,
> for
> a japanese or a europeean it's not 500$ but 350$
> But other new Ideale saddle i offer is affordable.
> Regards
> Jaouen BAZIN
> Wissous, France
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
--
Ken Freeman
Ann Arbor, MI USA