Why did bicycles have seats for 90 years, now they have saddles?
12-13-22, 09:50 AM
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Sheldon Brown has largely been credited with popularizing the term: see for example https://www.sheldonbrown.com/upgrade-gears.html
The problem is that all of the other plausible names for the part are brand names or entirely too long.
12-13-22, 09:55 AM
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Sheldon Brown has largely been credited with popularizing the term: see for example https://www.sheldonbrown.com/upgrade-gears.html
The problem is that all of the other plausible names for the part are brand names or entirely too long.
The problem is that all of the other plausible names for the part are brand names or entirely too long.
12-13-22, 09:56 AM
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12-13-22, 09:57 AM
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Looks like this guy was posting about his recumbents until 2014. My suspicion is he switched to DF bikes fairly recently and didn't realize that the reason he wasn't hearing "saddle" until a few years ago was that he was previously riding bikes that don't have saddles.
12-13-22, 10:09 AM
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Excerpt from Sheldon Brown's glossary page:"Brifter-A combination brake/shift lever, such as a Campagnolo Ergo or Shimano S.T.I. unit. This term was coined by Bruce Frech."
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12-13-22, 10:18 AM
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Bicycles were invented when people still road horses. It was natural if horses have saddles bikes should too. For many years, K-Mart, Sears, Western Auto, sold bikes with seats and they sold replacement seats too. Tricycle, bicycles, motor cycles all had seats. Advertisements sold bike seats for many years. A bicycle has a seat on the seat post that fits into the seat tube. Hard core bicyclist says, saddle and the general public says seat. I go to Walmart & Target they sell bike seats. The bike shop looks at you cross eyed like they have no clue what a bike seat is, WE sell saddles. LOL.
12-13-22, 10:41 AM
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Bicycles were invented when people still road horses. It was natural if horses have saddles bikes should too. For many years, K-Mart, Sears, Western Auto, sold bikes with seats and they sold replacement seats too. Tricycle, bicycles, motor cycles all had seats. Advertisements sold bike seats for many years. A bicycle has a seat on the seat post that fits into the seat tube. Hard core bicyclist says, saddle and the general public says seat. I go to Walmart & Target they sell bike seats. The bike shop looks at you cross eyed like they have no clue what a bike seat is, WE sell saddles. LOL.
Again, you sit on a seat, you straddle a saddle.
12-13-22, 10:47 AM
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Bicycles were invented when people still road horses. It was natural if horses have saddles bikes should too. For many years, K-Mart, Sears, Western Auto, sold bikes with seats and they sold replacement seats too. Tricycle, bicycles, motor cycles all had seats. Advertisements sold bike seats for many years. A bicycle has a seat on the seat post that fits into the seat tube. Hard core bicyclist says, saddle and the general public says seat. I go to Walmart & Target they sell bike seats. The bike shop looks at you cross eyed like they have no clue what a bike seat is, WE sell saddles. LOL.
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12-13-22, 11:31 AM
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Bicycles were invented when people still road horses. It was natural if horses have saddles bikes should too. For many years, K-Mart, Sears, Western Auto, sold bikes with seats and they sold replacement seats too. Tricycle, bicycles, motor cycles all had seats. Advertisements sold bike seats for many years. A bicycle has a seat on the seat post that fits into the seat tube. Hard core bicyclist says, saddle and the general public says seat. I go to Walmart & Target they sell bike seats. The bike shop looks at you cross eyed like they have no clue what a bike seat is, WE sell saddles. LOL.
The use of "saddle" or "seat" is a carefully-laid trap for real cyclists to identify other real cyclists. If you refer to the component that attaches to the top of a seatpost as a seat we know you're not a real cyclist....or a real bike shop.
/s
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12-13-22, 12:27 PM
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One of several early patents on Bicycle Saddle:
Mentions of "bicycle saddle" and "bicycle seat" in Google Books:
Mentions of "bicycle saddle" and "bicycle seat" in Google Books:
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12-13-22, 12:46 PM
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Bicycles were invented when people still road horses. It was natural if horses have saddles bikes should too. For many years, K-Mart, Sears, Western Auto, sold bikes with seats and they sold replacement seats too. Tricycle, bicycles, motor cycles all had seats. Advertisements sold bike seats for many years. A bicycle has a seat on the seat post that fits into the seat tube. Hard core bicyclist says, saddle and the general public says seat. I go to Walmart & Target they sell bike seats. The bike shop looks at you cross eyed like they have no clue what a bike seat is, WE sell saddles. LOL.
"Bike seat" is a common term, but your history of the term "bike saddle" is cockamamie. Look at post 12 above--I selected that ad to illustrate the point. That's a mid-century Schwinn ad obviously aimed at kids, and it uses the term "saddle". There's absolutely no way that ad was aimed at the horsey set.
BTW, love the "handrail" on the saddle--kid on roller skates to hold on? Definitely pre CPSC.
12-13-22, 12:48 PM
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I found about 100 old advertisements that say, bike seat & bicycle seat. I have never seen a banana saddle advertisement. LOL
I got my first bicycle when I was 5 years old, I road my bike to, grade school every day, high school every day, college every day, work every day for years, I did group rides for years, even don't bike camping, rail to trail bike rides, beach bike rides, mountain & desert bike ride, national park bike rides, I have a bike trailer for camping, but I don't often shop in a real bike shop so I guess I'm not a real biker. LOL
Road was a typo, no option to fix it.
I got my first bicycle when I was 5 years old, I road my bike to, grade school every day, high school every day, college every day, work every day for years, I did group rides for years, even don't bike camping, rail to trail bike rides, beach bike rides, mountain & desert bike ride, national park bike rides, I have a bike trailer for camping, but I don't often shop in a real bike shop so I guess I'm not a real biker. LOL
Road was a typo, no option to fix it.
Last edited by Crash2Much; 12-14-22 at 07:53 AM.
12-13-22, 01:04 PM
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12-13-22, 01:15 PM
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I found about 100 old advertisements that say, bike seat & bicycle seat. I have never seen a banana saddle advertisement. LOL
I got my first bicycle when I was 5 years old, I road my bike to, grade school every day, high school every day, college every day, work every day for years, I did group rides for years, even don't bike camping, rail to trail bike rides, beach bike rides, mountain & desert bike ride, national park bike rides, I have a bike trailer for camping, but I don't often shop in a real bike shop so I guess I'm not a real biker. LOL
Road was a typo, not option to fix it.
I got my first bicycle when I was 5 years old, I road my bike to, grade school every day, high school every day, college every day, work every day for years, I did group rides for years, even don't bike camping, rail to trail bike rides, beach bike rides, mountain & desert bike ride, national park bike rides, I have a bike trailer for camping, but I don't often shop in a real bike shop so I guess I'm not a real biker. LOL
Road was a typo, not option to fix it.
Clearly "road" was a typo. That doesn't mean people aren't going to have fun with it at your expense.
Also...you might want to check out the "edit" button near the bottom right of your posts 
The bicycle has a few terms that are kinda wonky - what the hell is a "bottom bracket"?? Oh...the crank bearings...got it.
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12-13-22, 01:55 PM
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Excerpt from Sheldon Brown's glossary page:"Brifter-A combination brake/shift lever, such as a Campagnolo Ergo or Shimano S.T.I. unit. This term was coined by Bruce Frech."
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12-13-22, 02:05 PM
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So out of curiosity, I did some google searches with the phrases in quotes:
"bike seat" got about 4.7 million hits, "bicycle seat" got about 2.7 million hits, "bicycle saddle" got about 2.67 million hits, and "bike saddle" got about 2.4 million hits,
Bike seat appears to be the most popular phrase, but it's hardly a knockout.
12-13-22, 02:06 PM
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And cxwrench has been fuming ever since.
I'll change my sig line when he changes his.
12-13-22, 04:24 PM
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12-13-22, 05:27 PM
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Probably chair. Recumbents has to be a made up word. Re - means to do it again. If you ride one twice or more, then it starts to make sense. I rode one once - so dropped it.
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12-13-22, 10:12 PM
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it's so people's cheeks can be put into the boot & not require a bonnet.
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12-13-22, 11:36 PM
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A Seat is for sitting and a Saddle is for ridding...
You can install a Seat on a seat post. But when your ridding its a Saddle...
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12-14-22, 02:14 AM
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We should talk disc brake v rim brake, steel v carbon, wide tires v narrow tires, and electronic shifting v mechanical shifting since we've not talked about those things much.
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