AGDA saddles, I believe, were standard equipment on the many thousands of Peuguot UO-8s shipped to these shores. May account for why many people forsook (real) leather saddles. I believe Sheldon has some ink about these somewhere on his site. Apparently, many were assembled with the seat clamp upside down, resulting in seat posts dead against the leather. Ouch. Probably about the equivalent of a Wright.
I can't say whether my long since stolen UO-8 w/ AGDA saddle had the clamp installed correctly but mine was OK and I still use leather saddles to this day. I'd definitely play with it to see if you can get it into shape.
Charlie Young Honeybrook, PA
-----Original Message----- From: Gjvinbikes@aol.com <Gjvinbikes@aol.com> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Date: Friday, April 13, 2001 8:10 PM Subject: [CR]ADGA leather saddles ?
>On a junked Motobecane' Mirage I salvaged this afternoon from a rubbish
pile,
>I found a rather weatherbeaten (and yet essentially unridden) Brooks-style
>saddle. Perhaps you have seen these before ?
>
>It is chrome-steel-railed with adjusting bolt and nut ala Brooks and Wright
>with small ex-chromed rivits. On the sides are embossed (branded ?) an
oval
>logo with the following bits still more or less possible to make out:
>
>ADGA
>Chatillon..a.. (?)
>28.A
>
>with smaller ovals towards the nose that say something that might have been
>"Rodeo", maybe.
>
>This saddle has been horribly abused, over the years, and deep gouges in
the
>underside show where the seat pin clamp has been chewing up into it from it
>never having been tightened. I am thinking of slathering it with some old
>ProofHide and putting a hair dryer to it, then tightening it up to see what
>it might re-form into.
>
>Probably a cheap French Wright-copy ?
>
>Glenn Jordan - Durham, NC