Be seated..

Beyond reach..

Of all the parts I had to search for, the saddle and seatpost proved to be the most difficult to find. Although I had never sat on one, the craftmanship of Selle Italia or San Marco seemed the right choice. So those were the only brands I focused on, preferring to find new old stock in the same generation of the bike itself. I was very excited to soon spot a new San Marco saddle on Marketplace in almost exactly the same blue as the frame: The Mapei color scheme. A rich mixture of blue with supportive sub-colours. It would be the perfect fit. But it was going to cost so it turned out right away. High offers were already made and needed to be surpassed. I made one attempt, as I was keen to get this magnificent piece, but failed. The seller was patient and obviously aware of the value and exclusivity of this rarely seen item and expected to be paid dearly. 

As much as I wanted it; my budget also had its boundary. 

Can you believe it..?

I had meanwhile decided that the seat post needed to be black, and the seat blue, or a mixture of black and blue. Which was not easy as I was to find out. It took over 2 months of searching before I finally succeeded. In a way that was both totally unexpected and unbelievable. At a certain point in my search I somehow ran into a picture of a blue Selle seat for sale in a bike shop in the centre of Naples Italy. It was an outlet offer costing..…..EUR.19,90 (!) And online purchasing turned out to be possible, be it in the old-fashioned way by sending e-mails vice-versa. Shipping charges were small using the cheapest postal option which after all took just 7 days which is still quite fast. The saddle was an XO-Gel, brand new, in a rather similar color setting, fitting the bike perfectly. A true treasure. Amazing.. The still original box in which it was packed and shipped was already worn, probably from having it pulled from and placed back on the shelve over and over again for many years. 

But no seat without a post of course. And there things were not getting easier. Because I wanted a carbon seatpost, preferably Campagnolo, and preferably new old stock. But with a steel bike frame from the nineties, this means a 27,2mm diameter which is simply not available. At least not as new old stock; used only... N.o.s, Campagnolo and 27,2mm? Yes, but in alu only. Carbon, Campagnolo and new; Yes.. but in 32,4mm only.  So going for used after all then? The annoying thing is that almost all used seatposts have wear that is immediately visible. Mostly from adjusting, and / or too tight fastening. All parts were new so I could not make an exception, especially not for the eye-catching seat post. Ok.. so no Campa then? Alright.. I simply started searching for a carbon Colnago seatpost. And found one immediately, brand new, in Hungary.

But it was Holiday time and I decided to just drop the whole bike part affair for 2 weeks and see how things would stand after I had returned. Which turned out to be favorable. As Ebay now showed a new advertisement for a brand new Campa Chorus Carbon seatpost n.o.s., available in Denmark. At a cost, but I had searched so long and the seat had been so cheap that I decided to take it. As well as the one from Hungary. I had 2 bikes after all.. And Hungary had more to offer so it turned-out, as I had one more challenge left after the saddle business would be handeled. The fully black Colnago seatpost had a better match with the black mounting brackets of the new seat on the current Tecnos, so the Chorus ended on Tecnos 1, replacing the 36 cm (!) long Aluminium FSA seatpost with a carbon look, which was of course a real fine improvement.