At the 1933 Olympia (London) Cycle Show Brooks displayed advanced technology in saddle construction. I found this article(PDF) in the Nov 24, 1933 edition of Cycling magazine. The Brooks piece was a part of a larger article about highlights of the show.

There are some interesting concepts here for Brooks wonks. I have never seen one of these saddles.

Interesting vocabulary:
“roadfarers” kitbags” “Champion Duralumin” “B.16 Champion” “castalumin formation” “automatic tensioning device” “fabric-cum-leather-cum-felt surfacing” “dome-headed rivet” “Plyflex” “constructional alteration”

Tags: duralum

Quoc Pham, of London, is offering a new traditional cycling shoe.

These shoes are designed with a slim fit, for easy toe-clip entry, and a thin, stiff sole -  fine characteristics for a clip-and-strap shoe. But Quoc Pham is a designer. That means they’re going to look good. These are very nice looking shoes and the price is pretty reasonable.

There are five different colors of leather (patent, anyone?) but most seem to be out of stock right now.

Last year it was the white Swallow. This year our special dealer award saddle is a B.17 with the fur still on the leather. This is number 99 of 100.

Tags: shaggy supremedealer

You may be familiar with Kara Ginther’s leatherwork from her Flickr photostream or other blog posts. When we saw her leather saddle art on Flickr we wanted one of our own for the “wallbike collection.”

Kara had already posted pictures of one saddle in this “Artifact” style. I asked for this B.17S model to be done in the same style. Kara says Artifact “tries to recreate the look of chipped pottery, worn tiles, dense patterns and glimpses of brilliant hues.” The distressed effect added to the challenge.

Tags: karaginther, leather art

The Road Cycling UK (RCUK) website has posted a “first ride” review of the Berthoud saddle.

Demonstrating the versatility of ZWEI messenger/bike/hand/etc bag.
(this video shows four bag sizes. There are six now.)