EBykr

Idéale saddles are among the least understood bicycle components given their historical prominence and sometimes exorbitant value. The dizzying array of models produced continues vexing even the most ardent collectors, who seem to enjoy the punishment received when combining obscurity of fact with broad product offerings and potential stratospheric price appreciation.

The celebrated yet largely unknown Idéale saddle deserves its enigmatic reputation every bit proportionate to its modern popularity and then some. Had it not been for a collapsing French cycling industry and distinct inability to move beyond core markets, Idéale might even be around today.

1890 in France was a wonderful time and place for transportation breakthroughs. Armand Peugeot and Emile Levassor gave motorized four wheelers their first automobiles, while motorized two wheelers had Marquis Albert De Dion and Georges Bouton finalizing the motorcycle engine before emerging as the world’s largest car producer by 1900.

Motor free transportation was of course by now widespread, with masses of cyclists discovering how profound an impact the safety bicycle was having on their mobility and even anatomy. Factoring in somewhere here were two events of importance to classic bicycling, one social and the other economic.

As the sport and business of cycling grew in the late nineteenth century, the constructs that typically balance such institutions — like ethical guidelines and market dynamics — also started appearing. Responding to a growing need for organizational support around recreational cycling, the Touring Club of France (TCF) was established in 1890 as the only nationally represented group of cyclotourists.

With a purpose shaped by spiritual forebears like Paul de Vivie, or Vélocio, the TCF continues working hard to promote cyclotourism and de Vivie’s “Seven Commandments” as rules to ride by. The Grand Seigneur, as de Vivie was also known, is best remembered for publishing the biblical “Le Cycliste” journal, which he founded three fertile years before the TCF was established.

Coincident to communities of riders forming and accepting standards for participation was the introduction of commercial interests to service this market’s newfound needs. One particularly early and focused entrant here was a man named Jean-François Tron.

Residing in Paris in 1890, Tron was commissioned to provide one M. Noirot with metal saddle chassis parts in a transaction that apparently went well. The following year Noirot’s rival, M. Bauriat, ordered 20,000 units that required special tooling by Tron. After just 2,000 units were manufactured, Bauriat backed out and forced Tron to start making complete saddles himself.

Having already demonstrated saddles weighing under 500 grams at the first Paris bicycle exposition, held at the exquisitely-appointed Salle Wagram, Tron and founding partner Baillard had an established reputation for making fine cycling goods. Production managed to grow gradually in the face of formidable capital constraints and a nascent cycling market. Tools like friction and eccentric presses were purchased, as was enameling and plating equipment, helping distinguish saddles produced by “Tron & Baillard” from the others.

Ten solid years into the venture, a now independent Tron packed up his atelier in metropolitan Paris and relocated it to minuscule Pont-Saint-Pierre, hidden in the department of Eure and region of Haute-Normandie in northwest France. What had been a workshop was now a factory, on the site of a former wool spinning mill driven by hydraulic power that Tron adapted for saddle making purposes.

Situated near the confluence of the Seine and Andelle rivers, the village of Pont-Saint-Pierre is located in the county of Lyons-Andelle. Lyons-Andelle is nested between the old French Vexin and Rouennaise region. Located 100km northwest of Paris toward the sea, the place is full of greenery and has long been a haven for peaceful people.

Today the Andelle area has thirteen communes with over 11,000 inhabitants who share a robust range of collective services. Pont-Saint-Pierre is a member commune whose population represents the entire village. When last officially counted in 1999 there were 953 inhabitants in Pont-Saint-Pierre.

With operations functionally relocated to this ideal countryside community by 1901, Tron and his company, now renamed “F. Tron & Cie”, were set to enjoy three decades of prosperity. Included here were the marriage of Tron’s daughter to aristocratic Marcel Berthet and conversion of the family business to a Société Anonyme in 1927, allowing joint stock ownership and thus means to fund necessary capital improvements.

Tron died in 1931 with his company’s success peaking. Five years earlier a respectable 200,000 Idéale saddles were manufactured, while five years later a staggering half million were manufactured. Records suggest that upon Tron’s death oversight duties passed on to his daughter who was likely familiar with daily operations and a suitable candidate to assume immediate responsibility for designing, manufacturing and distributing Idéale saddles.

Shortly afterward in 1933 Berthet was handed the company’s management reigns. With models now including the venerable No. 57 Record and No. 54 Duralumin, weighing a full 250 grams less, Tron posthumously handed his son-in-law the far ranging product line and distribution capacity he had always sought. Meeting demand constantly nagged Tron until he finished construction on a large factory and sold shares in the company four years before dying. In the end, these two monuments of achievement represent his professional swan song.

A well-established sportsman and bon vivant, Berthet took the company upmarket and repositioned it as the most exquisite provider of bicycle saddles worldwide. Renamed Tron & Berthet S.A., the Idéale brand was reborn and recast to live another half century. Despite selling millions of units under his leadership, Berthet remains far better known for his cycling exploits than business acumen.

Berthet is the first cyclist generally regarded as having reached 50km in the prestigious hour record and was official UCI hour record holder on three separate occasions. He established his first record in June 1907 at 41.620km, second in August 1913 at 42.741km and third in September 1913 at 43.755km.

Nineteen years after setting his final UCI record, a 47 year old Berthet built and piloted a sleek bicycle named the Vélodyne Streamliner to a new hour “world record” under less restrictive IHPVA rules. During that November 1933 attempt he covered 49.992km in his second of two efforts that year, this one at the prestigious Monthléry motor speedway.

His Vélodyne bicycle was constructed of aluminum with spruce and magnolia reinforcements and covered with a glorious fabric skin. Apparently its hypnotizing appearance was convincing enough for period journalists to declare his shortfall of .008km meaningless in the greater context of sporting records. The bicycle certainly looks fast!

Between that glorious hour in 1933 and his final one in 1953 Berthet bore witness to the rise and fall of the Idéale brand. Ultimately victim to lower priced competition and waning interest in French cycling products after a devastating second World War, manufacturing continued until 1980 under the management of Pierre Berthet, only known grandson of Jean-François Tron. Despite the rich heritage, creditors rarely go poor.

Over the years Tron & Berthet S.A. participated briefly in two collectives of companies that offered complete groups of components, first Sélection Tricolore Course (STC) and then Geffac, neither of which lasted long. Even in its final year the company offered a robust 29 saddle models in three categories: leather racing; Rislan plastic racing; and utility, road and children.

For maximum weight savings Idéale saddles were occasionally modified to mount directly to a seat post. This occurred by welding the saddle to the seat post or using a special seat post designed to nullify the need for a clamp.

In extreme cases of frugality Idéale saddles could even be mounted directly to an extended seat tube, thus refining the seat tube, seat post collar, seat post, post clamp and saddle into one unified structure. “Très légère” indeed, at least for one very special rider.

Today Idéale saddles and accessories are celebrated for their longevity and variety. The most enduring quality they carry though is that of their superiority. For the better part of a century the Idéale nameplate was affixed to the lightest saddles available. From breakthroughs in leather conditioning techniques involving sumac and tannin to wonderfully efficient undercarriage designs in aluminum and titanium, all that the Idéale brand still stands for is well earned.

Advancing the primary interface between rider and bicycle as Idéale did would suggest lasting success for the advancer. Among cyclists, improving the saddle is akin to building a better mousetrap, as Tron and two generations of Berthets kept doing for ninety years. However sometimes even the craftiest of mice fail to escape their own mousetrap, leading one to wonder what might have been had Idéale only thought beyond the seat of its pants.

Special thanks to: Mark Bulgier, Brian DiMambro at International Book Sales Inc. and Arnfried Schmitz.

Idéale Ebykr References:
http://peugeot.mainspot.net/hist03.shtml
http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z10259/De%20Dion_Bouton/default.aspx
http://www.ffct.org/qui/p_h.htm
http://www.randonneurs.bc.ca/history/cyclo-tourism_velocio_clifford-graves.html
http://www.bikecult.com/bikecultbook/groups_all.html
http://www.sallewagram.com/
http://www.cdc-andelle.com/commune/commune.php?commune=pont_saint_pierre
http://www.cdc-andelle.com/commune/histoire.php?commune=pont_saint_pierre
http://members.aol.com/satorumas/brands/ideale.html
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont-Saint-Pierre
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Berthet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hour_record
http://www.velorizontal.com/marcel_berthet.htm
http://www.eau-seine-normandie.fr/…/CA_80_21.PDF

Other Idéale References:
http://www.cyclepublishing.com/cyclingbooks/his13.html
http://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalogs/bikecology-81/bike15.jpg
http://www.wooljersey.com/gallery/Ideale-brochure-1969/Page_01?full=1
http://portsmouthbookshop.com/MapPage/MapPages555xx/55556pari.htm
http://perso.orange.fr/tandem.noir/pages/tandem-s.htm
http://www.classicrendezvous.com/France/Ideale_main.htm
http://www.classicrendezvous.com/France/Ideale/Ideale_Kitching81.htm