~o~
Saturday 6th 46F/8C. Light SW winds until after lunch.
8.15. 49F/9C. The sun is trying to break through but with little success. I saw two pairs of yellowhammers before I'd left the drive. Not much to report after that. Except for all the attention seeking skylarks.
I walked to the lanes. Becoming too hot in a thin fleece jacket and jumper. While my hands remained cold. The large puddles had returned to the fields after more heavy rain. Though not on the scale of Australia. Where they had all 7"/18cm of April rain in one day. It did not end well.
9.20 Sunshine! Too good to waste! Where am I going today?
15.00 61F/16C. Rode to see my friend. 60km/37miles. There was occasional sunshine and it was mild. I had to remove my jumper on the way and swap batteries on the way back. Lots of flooding in the fields. Huge puddles and streams across the rural lanes. I rode through water over 10cm/4" deep at one point. Keeping to the crown to minimize the water depth.
Becoming more breezy and cloudier later. A flying beetle managed to get past my hearing aid and into my ear. I stopped several times thinking my hearing aid was dislodged. Then it started tickling even worse. So I removed my helmet, sunglasses and hearing aid. After which I managed to hook the beetle out with my little finger. How did it get past the silicone dome in my ear?Safely back at home I dismantled both saddles. The Contec "Exclusive Touring" and the Brooks B67. The springs were the same width apart but there were differences. The Contec leather top is at least 10mm longer. The screws and the springs were different sizes too. I could have used the B67 frame on the Contec leather top but decided it wasn't worth the risk of trouble far from home.
I have to say that the Contec seemed far better made and designed overall. Though was obviously a close copy of the B67. One screw [or nut] on the Brooks was cross threaded. Making it impossible to tighten or loosen. Brooks use a square shank, coach bolt, to grip the last coil of the spring. Which quickly failed. I had to resort to a woodworking clamp to hold the head of the bolt still while I worked on the nut. The Contec uses slightly smaller diameter crews with serrated lock nuts. It was much easier to dismantle.
BUT: As mentioned previously: My Contec saddle has sharp nicks at every bend of the wire frame. Making it highly susceptible to local fracture or even work hardening. All it needed was for the bending tool dies to be gently radiused. This glaring cock-up was clearly beyond the copyist's understanding of the Brooks 19th century technology. Which uses completely worn out machines from the steam driven era. So that it's machine bending dies are all worn out enough not to nick the bends even if they tried. While Contec's built in obsolescence is probably due to nepotism.
Or the factory sweeper being put in charge of design and production. That's not really fair. Many a factory sweeper would know far better at a glance. But would never be listened to by an elitist or crooked management bent on copying an existing product.
No qualified engineer could possibly have let this major production fault pass first inspection. Let alone leave the sweat shop.
Sadly, Denmark has no consumer protection. So I can't just go to the Local Trading Standards Office for learned advice. Had Contec answered my email, about the broken frame, I might not have been so harsh.
Any company, which fails to support its shoddy products, is clearly little more than a bunch of crooks. Strictly IMO of course. I wonder if I should upload a video to YouTube? To show the faulty construction of my £90/105€ + £10 postage, Contec saddle. What they used to call "a nice little earner!"
Dinner was fish fingers and chips.
~o~
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