Originally Posted by
79pmooney
Good post. I raced the Avocet 3 in the mid '70s. It and the 2 were vastly better seats than the 1. The 2 and 3 (at least at that time) were made by Selle Italia and were stamped "made in Italy" underneath. I never knew about the RS and am guessing they weren't sold until well into the '80s.
The Avocet RS was actually an early model. I think they came out in late 78, for sure they were advertised by the beginning of 79. The original saddle on my 78 Masi was an RS, that's part of how I know. I've had it since Dec 79.
There was a Selle Italia version at the same time, also lived about a year and a half, but I never saw one. Sometime in 1980 the Turbo came out, which was the basically the same saddle with the back shell extended a bit to cover the somewhat unsightly rail caps in the back. Avocet simply started calling the Turbo the 'RS', and putting their name on them. This went on as far as I can recall for several years, long after the original SI RS had been replaced. Selle Itallia didn't to my recollection start selling Turbos till about 1982 in my area (nor Cal). I kinda think there must've been some sort of 5 year no compete agreement.
Yeah, broken aluminum rails were more annoying than dangerous. The Avocet seat posts broke too, and those actually could injure you severely. I actually had one until Jobst Brandt made me take it off - really. I recall some wry comment about the nature of the potential injury.