Back to new Ideale saddles. Friend and I noticed the special Ti rail saddles they made for Concours des Machines in France a few years back, as written in Bicycle Quarterly. We inquired if such saddles were available, received a positive response that they only make a few each year and if we wanted, we’d be put on a list. Maybe 6-8 months later they were ready to make them and needed our choices: leather color, firm or softer leather, aluminum or brass rivets. We ordered 2 in black with aluminum rivets, one firm one soft. Katia was great to deal with, beautiful saddles arrived well packed. We’ve both enjoyed riding on them. An extravagance, but a fine experience and now we have very cool saddles from a company who have resurrected crafting saddles using long ago methods.