Originally Posted by
Ol Danl
Ran across the original seat that came on my late 70's Raleigh Record the other day. It's a regular-looking vinyl covered saddle, but it says Brooks and made in England on the back. I've followed a lot of the Brooks threads on here -- did they make these themselves, or did they buy some inexpensive seats and put their name on them? By the way, I replaced it back then with an Ideale 39, and still use that on the Record.
It wasn't too unusual back then to buy a $90 road bike, like a UO-8, Raleigh Gran Prix, Atala, or Bottechia and upgrade the rock-hard base saddle for a Pro. Pro's were around $20-$25 if I recall, and that was a princely sum being aroudn 25% of the price of the bike.
Brooks did participate in the Bike Boom!
Road Fan