Is it worthwhile repairing old components?

One of the fundamental problems in restoring old bikes is trying to source the period correct components to go on your frame. As the years slip by with ever increasing speed, the availability of the components you seek, seems to diminish. Occasionally, you may find the part you are looking for may turn up, but damaged. I have a frame belonging to a clubmate, that I know from over forty years ago. It lay rusting in the clubroom, having been used as a complete bike for riding rollers. Sweat had taken it’s toll on the paintwork, the frame had been stripped of all of it’s original components, but I had the frame refinished in original colour with original pattern transfers/decals reinstated. The restoration became moribund, because of the difficulty in trying to source period correct parts. It is my intention to build the bike up with parts sold by the late Ron Kitchin. The original owner was a big user of parts from ‘Everything Cycling’.

I had a large flange Normandy front hub from the 1950s/1960s, with the round holes in flanges, but I only had a damaged suitable rear hub. The flange was bent inwards from having the chain derail off the largest sprocket and wedging between the freewheel block and the flange. The flange was also heavily pitted from the incident. I have searched in vain for more than five years to find a better example without success. The one thing in favour of the damaged example, was the bearing cups in the hub are perfect. I asked a friend back in 2019 if he could repair the hub. The reply came back in the affirmative.

Now in fairness, it has taken a while, but my friend had just moved house and has been fully occupied renovating the property, back into a home for him and his family, in addition to all the other work, he has had on his plate. A recent visit, resulted in him showing me the tooling he had made to repair the hub. My friend explained that he had mulled over the problem of repair, analysing how best to tackle the repair, resulting in the best chance of success. Any way, I called with him a few weeks later and was presented with the repaired hub. The damaged right hand flange has been straightened, and the damage aluminium has been welded and ground back. Although some evidence of the repair is visible, it will not be visible, once the hub has been built into a wheel and a freewheel block fitted. Importantly the repair will not be visible from the usual viewing position at the back of the flange. One caveat. I don’t know how durable this repair would be for everyday, frequent use. However, for use on a vintage bike, probably doing no more than thirty miles on a vintage run, it should be more than adequate. The satisfaction is that this had made a damaged part useable once more, as well as a problem overcome in the journey to putting an old frame back on the road.

Idéale Saddles

Idéale saddles were a brand of leather saddles made by Tron et Berthet from Pont Saint Pierre, Eure Department, Haute-Normandie, France. Tron et Berthet sourced their leather from two suppliers in France, one in the north of the country and one in the south. The leather for the best saddles had to be a certain thickness, too thin and the saddle top would stretch and sag, too thick and the leather fibres would break as the top was formed causing failure of the saddle. Even when cutting up the hide, knowledge was needed as to which parts of the hide were to be used for the best saddles, the rest of the hide being used for children's saddles. Jean-François Tron had started his Idéale saddle production in the 1890s in Paris and moved to Pont Saint Pierre in 1900. Marcel Berthet married Jeanne Tron. Jean-François Tron died in 1931 and control of the company passed to Jeanne Berthet and her brother Jean Tron. Jean Tron remained with the company until the 1970s when his nephew Pierre Berthet became it's director. Pierre Berthet was the grandson of Jean-François Tron.  Idéale had an association with the Dunlop Company of Fort Dunlop, Birmingham before the outbreak of the Second World War. Tron and Berthet had sourced some of their machinery from England, which would later cause problems, as it was calibrated in imperial dimensions (inches) and of course, France was metric, which required time consuming conversion.

Changing patterns in agriculture after the Second World War were to have an impact on Idéale, as cattle breeds changed to facilitate greater food production. The newer breeds did not produce the type of leather Idéale required and made sourcing the required leather much more difficult and expensive for the company. The changing fashion, within cycling, from the 1960s onwards, for Italian plastic saddles like Unica-Nitor, would also have long term impact. As the fashion amongst cyclists changed from a purely leather saddle, in favour of leather covered padded saddles over a plastic base, (Cinelli, Concor, Milremo, Rolls) meant in reality, many cyclists were not prepared to invest time and discomfort in breaking in a leather saddle to achieve a comfortable seat. So Idéale's market share for bicycle saddles began to decline, as their top of the range saddles were leather, in addition to the other difficulties.  Idéale also had VAR Tools produce a saddle adjustment spanner which would fit both Idéale and Brooks.   

Unlike the English made Brooks saddles, Idéale leather saddles were waterproof, so didn't absorb rain water and sag if they got wet.  Idéale  had developed their own secret process which allowed the leather to be waterproofed in the saddle manufacturing process.  Idéale also experimented with different materials for their saddle frames. Initially they used steel, which on some models was chrome plated. Chrome plating became harder to have done towards the end of production, as changing health and safety regulations forced many platers to close.  Tron et Berthet also experimented with alloy and produced saddles (Model 90R Competition) with an alloy frame. Towards the end of production in the 1970s Idéale made saddles with Titanium frames and seatposts. Special saddles were produced on occasion, an example of which I saw with the leather top drilled full of holes for lightness much like the fashion for drilled components used by time trialists in the 1970s. 

Idéale did produce a copy of the Brooks B17 saddle (Model 80 Record)) which sold well. They also developed the Daniel Rebour branded Model 92 'Diagonale' and Model 88 Competition.

The Berthet family sold the business to another company which wanted to modernise the business and mass produce the leather saddles. In reality, the new owners had little appreciation that the leather had to be hand worked. Their attempts at mechanisation failed and the company went bust approximately six months after the new owners took over. A sad end for an iconic brand. Idéale saddles are well regarded by collectors and were the saddle of choice of many French 'constructeurs'.  Idéale saddles in good condition are now beginning to command high prices on French ebay.

Idéale saddles was one of the lines that Ron Kitching imported and sold from his Harrogate cycle parts business. They were considered expensive by many in the 1970s and I don't have any recollection of any local clubmen from that time using an Idéale saddle in this part of Ireland.