Re: Re[2]: [CR]Dating Brooks Saddles

At 11:09 PM 06/09/2007 -0400, dima wrote:
>> http://www.vintage-trek.com/component_dates.htm
>
>So, exactly how does one date a Brooks?
>From the vintage-trek site:

"Brooks Saddles - Prior to sometime in the 1960s the inside of leather side flaps were stamped with a date code. The stamp denoted the month and year of manufacture. Mrs. O'Donnell* writes: "Unfortunately, the "code" book is now lost so we cannot decipher the actual codes used at that time. It is, sadly, not quite as simple as A=January, B=February etc. This 'flap' stamping changed to the frame stamping around the 1960's although there was an 'overlap' period where both the leather and the frame were stamped."

The metal frames of the saddles were stamped with the date of manufacture from sometime in the 1960s to about 1988.

The current method of stamping Brooks saddles is a colored stamp on the underside of the saddle, with a number for the year surrounding a letter for the month."

Mine has this stamping:

http://www.wooljersey.com/gallery/d/168198-2/Dscf0015.jpg which looks like 8/67 (or maybe B and 67). That would be for saddles manufactured during the on-topic period (1960s to 1988). I actually used this to date my Jeunet, although it's possible that the guy I bought it from may have replaced the original saddle. I got the bike in the eighties, when Brooks Swallows weren't as sought-after as they are today.

John Betmanis
Woodstock, Ontario
Canada