If you saw yesterday's post, you noticed that I was on my Le Tour III. And, a couple of weeks back, I mentioned that the seatpost and seat had been stolen. The guys at Habitat gave me a seatpost and clamp that had been in one of their used-parts boxes; I installed it with the Terry Butterfly saddle I had on my Miss Mercian. Someone else is getting the Butterfly; I am going to try a new saddle I saw on sale.
It's made by a company called Gyes. I think they make the Velo Orange and a few other "own name" saddles. The one I'm installing on the Le Tour is the Parkside model, which is very similar to the Brooks B67--which, of course, is a B17 with springs.
That means I'll again have all-leather saddles on all of my bikes. A B17 is perched on Helene, and both Arielle and Tosca sport the narrow versions of the B17.
I'll admit that I'm starting with a certain prejudice: The Gyes is on my mass-produced, beat-up LeTour (which I've decided to name Marianela), and the Brooks saddles are on my handbuilt Mercians. Although the Gyes has a couple of features that Brooks doesn't (e.g., the flaps of the saddle skirt riveted together underneath the main part of the saddle), I still expect it to be of lower quality and lesser workmanship and not to last as long. That's another reason I put it on the Le Tour: If someone takes this saddle, I don't think I'll be as upset as I'd be if someone took one of my Brooks.
This should be interesting. I haven't ridden the seat yet, but I expect it to at least by early in the coming week.