Before I get into the main story.

I used to really like the CC-RD100 (wired, no cadence), the first model in CatEye's "Strada" series,
but the click-tech mechanism adopted after this model
(where the operation button is on the underside rather than the top, and the unit itself moves to push the button in a click-like fashion)
has problems, and with regular use the unit becomes wobbly relative to the mount.
With my usage frequency, it didn't last two years.
You could say it was about three battery lifespans worth of durability.
Even if you replace the mount-side parts, it's the grooves on the unit itself that are worn away,
so replacement doesn't actually solve the problem. And this issue still hasn't been fixed today.

The CC-RD200 model, which is the wired cadence version of this same design,
is still going strong for some reason,
but the cadence-less wireless CC-RD300W (Wireless) and
the cadence-equipped wireless CC-RD400DW (Double Wireless) have been discontinued.
The 300 and 400 are models from around 2008.
This is just speculation, but when high-brightness LED front lights and
wireless cycle computers are placed too close together,
the cycle computer's reception can be interfered with and speed and other information disappears,
and this effect was probably more pronounced with the 300 and 400's radio system, so maybe they discontinued them early.
The fact that the wired 200 from before that is still alive today seems to support this theory.
If CatEye were only a lights manufacturer or only a cycle computer manufacturer,
they could have ignored it, but having their own products interfering with each other
probably wasn't a good look.

I liked the RD100 because it had no problems even when used together with heart rate monitors,
which were notoriously unstable at the time regardless of manufacturer.
By the time the RD100 was discontinued, simple wired cycle computers like it
had become an endangered species even from other makers, and that's when I happened to notice
the cycle computer in the image above.
It's the CC-RD100 model exactly, but it was released as a Pinarello accessory,
and it was still obtainable years after the RD100 was discontinued
(though it's unobtainable now).


I've stocked some Colima saddles.
Looking at the catalog images, the base model appears to be a Selle Italia Flite,
with Colima branding stitched on.
I'd been curious about this for a while,
and I thought "could this actually be a Flite?" so I stocked them.

This might sound confusing, but
the Flite in the previous sentence is Flite in the broad sense, and the Flite is Flite in the narrow sense.
Since I was uncertain whether it was a true Flite, I started with just one,
and once I confirmed it was a Flite, I boldly stocked many more.




Changing subjects, I'm a collector of Selle Italia Turbos,
and I mentioned early on in this blog that I'd write about them someday,
but I still haven't.
I have the regular Turbo, the striped BioTurbo, the squishy gel Turbo Gel,
the Turbo Special with metal attachments front and rear like a San Marco Rolls,
the Turbo Triathlon with a central groove, the Lady Turbo with a wider rear,
the Lady Turbo Special with a wider rear in Turbo Special specs,
the Turbo Junior (Turbo Uniore) with shorter front and rear for juniors,
the Turbo SLG (Super Leggera) with aluminum rails,
the Pro Team Turbo with manganese rails, and others.


↑This is an Inoe Turbo with Bernard Inoue's name on the nose,
and while I also have the standard Turbo Inoe,
this is a Turbo Junior Inoe.
I pestered—no, rather forcibly seized... respectfully received it from the one who was my spiritual mentor in those days.
The animal depicted between Bernard and Inoue is a badger.
Because Inoue's nickname was "The Badger of Brittany."
However, Inoue actually used mainly a San Marco Rolls at the time.
There are cases where a manufacturer prepared a signature model for a rider but they never actually used it—
like Mario Cipollini's Selle Italia Century with lion stitching
(he only used San Marco Regals)
or the 3T handlebar "Merckx" named after Eddy Merckx
(he mainly used a Cinelli Number 64).


Now, the Turbo has a "Turbo 1980" reissue model,
and the one in the image above is my personal one with brown Nuback that's aged nicely.
The Turbo 1980, even by me—a Turbo expert (not a state-certified qualification)—
is so well executed as a reissue that it's hard to tell from the side view whether it's a reissue or not.
Well, unless it's clearly on some oldster's vintage bike,
pretty much any Turbo you see these days is definitely a Turbo 1980.

The Flite saddle, if you count major shape changes as generations, is currently in its third generation.
The second generation had a hole in the nose
with a plastic piece marked "Flite" that fit in it.
My personal thought about saddles is that
"if it becomes a completely different thing, they shouldn't keep the same model name."
I haven't used the third generation, but when I used the second generation Flite
I thought "this isn't a Flite at all."
Not to say the second generation Flite is a bad saddle—
I just would have wanted it to inherit the majority of Flite's characteristics
as befits the name Flite.
Among Selle Italia saddles, only the SLR seems to inherit this philosophy without too much compromise.
The second generation Flite is discontinued, but the first generation Flite has
a reissue model like the Turbo.
That's the Flite 1990.

However, unlike the Turbo 1980, the Flite 1990 is hard to call
a genuine reissue of the original Flite—it's rather ambiguous in execution.
So I planned to write an article about it and asked friend A,
"You had a bike with a Flite 1990 on it, right? Can you bring it over?"
and he came right away. But...


Hey, this is an original Flite, not a Flite 1990!
This won't work as article material! (Although it did)
Friend A definitely has a Flite 1990 as well.
The reason being that when the original Flite became unobtainable,
he bought a Flite 1990 "as a substitute, even if it's not quite the same."


So,

I stocked some for the article.

Can you spot the difference?


↑This is a Colima Flite.
The Flite saddle was, for its time, remarkably thin
and switching from a conventional saddle gave you an extra 2-3 cm of seatpost extension.
At the time, only horizontal top-tube frames existed,
so many people were concerned about the appearance of limited seatpost extension.
To increase seatpost extension, the saddle needed to be not just thin,
but also have a "non-raised-rail" shape.
The original Flite has the base and rails very close together,
and it's thinner than many of today's thin saddles.
Since there's some cushioning thickness in the base padding, it's somewhat thicker than a carbon spatula-like saddle,
but still remarkably slim.


With the Flite 1990, the rails are raised.
This was a necessary measure, I understand.
The original Flite's base and rails are so close that
if the seatpost's clamp bracket's upper parts are thick,
they interfere immediately.
They probably changed to raised rails to avoid this,
but, well, it's hard to call this a proper reissue of the original Flite...

To be clear, the Flite 1990 isn't a bad saddle.
There are probably people who find the Flite 1990 the most comfortable saddle they've ever used.
Regardless of that,
treating the Flite 1990 as identical to the original Flite is a stretch.


Thinking it might help with the article,
friend A also brought a Flite with Pinarello stitching,

and I placed them side by side.


I also placed the Colima saddle side by side.
By the way, as a replacement for the worn-out Flite at the bottom,
one of the Colima saddles was sold to friend A.


↑Going back in time a bit,
this was the first Colima saddle I hesitantly stocked, thinking
"could this actually be an original Flite?"


It has Colima stitching.
Honestly, I would have preferred a print...
Having stitching on the rear area accelerates pad degradation.
The Sella SMP stitched versions from that period are especially notorious for this.
Anyone who's used one knows that the chamois doesn't just pill—
the friction damage penetrates through to the skin.

Don't say mean things about the stitching!
Thanks to this stitching, original Flites are available new in 2018!
Yes, exactly—this parallel to how the CC-RD100 remained obtainable years after its discontinuation because it was a Pinarello accessory.
That's what I wanted to illustrate with this narrative.


That wax-seal-looking tie on the rails is nostalgic.


The Marco Pantani model Flite shown here has later-period stitching.
The first Flite I ever bought was a Pantani model with earlier-period stitching.
That was around 1996.


The included mini-catalog says 1999,
but this Colima saddle is from 2001 (more on that later).


I found a full-size 1999 catalog.


Wow! (Sorry for getting carried away)
Users of the original Pantani Flite shown here include
from left: Fausto Coppi, Eddy Merckx, Fiorenzo Magni,
Miguel Indurain, and Marco Pantani—quite an impressive lineup.
By the way, the first saddle to get Pantani stitching wasn't the Flite.
It was a model called the Sintesi TCS.
If you're interested, search for "SINTESI TCS PANTANI."
I should have one too, but I can't find it.

Anyway, Selle Italia saddles have traceable manufacturing dates.


This is the Inoe Turbo Junior from earlier.
The central number indicates the manufacturing year, and the surrounding letters represent the month.
This has nothing to do with the clock in the Sanctuary from Saint Seiya.
The sequence G, F, M, A, M, G, L, A, S, O, N, D represents
the first letters of the months in Italian (1-12),
but since all except January, June, and July match English month initials,
you can kind of figure it out.
Dots are used to mark the manufacturing month—if dots are missing from G, F, M, A onwards,
that would indicate April manufacturing, and so on.
But in the image above, only August and December are missing dots.
How sloppy!
Maybe 1986 was when they concentrated on making Turbos in August and December.
By the way, pre-1985 saddles sometimes lack this manufacturing date marking altogether.


January, June, and July start with G because Italian has no J in its alphabet.
J appears in borrowed words like Jeep, judo, and jazz,
so the Italian JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 5 has the protagonist spelled GIOGGIO instead of JOJO.
Though nobody calls him JoJo anyway,
which isn't unique to Part 5, so we shouldn't dwell on it.

The manufacturing date marking has changed in current models to
"an arrow pointing across the center of the year indicates the manufacturing month"
but

this Colima Flite had both the dot-missing and arrow systems marked.
It's from November 2001, or at least definitely 2001.


Friend A's black Flite was from May 1996.
Why the 1996 version lacks the dot marking that the 2001 version has is unclear.


The Flite 1990 featured in the article is from September 2017.
Also note that months are now shown in Arabic numerals.


I laid out some of the seatposts from a certain drawer in our shop.
From left: Sugino 75, 3T Criterium Aero, LOOK Ergopost,
Campagnolo C Record Aero, Sugino 75, Sugino Aero Mighty,
Sugino 75, Dura-Ace AX, LOOK Ergopost.


The 3T Criterium seatpost has a round cross-section with grooves,


while the Aero version has no grooves, with the front half round

and the rear half aero-shaped,

with the clamp bracket identical to the Criterium.


↑An older 3T logo. There's an even older generation logo too.
27.2mm diameter was unusual for the time,
but it exists because Columbus SLX seat tubes are 27.2mm ID.


I pulled the thick-upper clamp bracket all the way back.


Not quite touching—actually, the nut above the clamp is contacting the base.
This is why the original Flite is picky about seatposts,
and why they got skittish and went to raised rails with the Flite 1990.
Even if it looks like it's just barely touching, contact happens due to flex.


Also, where the clamp bracket contacts around the back of the "Titanium" marking,
the leather develops a permanent square indentation,
which is commonly seen on original Flites.


A Campagnolo Euclid seatpost, from their MTB component line.


My LOOK seatpost is