This is a rather rare seat post made by the famous French firm of J.P. Routens. Jo Routens, like Herse and Singer, was one of the premier French constructeurs. The firm became JPR when Jean-Paul Routens (Jo's son) took over. JPR made this post, as well as some very nice tandems and frames in all price ranges.
The design of this post is also very unusual as it
is a twin bolt post, but the adjustment is from the bottom! The JPR post was also used in the short lived and rare Huret Gruppo. Did you know Huret had a gruppo?
I found a few of these posts and will soon offer them in the Velo Orange store. Click to make the photos larger. By the way, that's Paul Sherwen, the TdF commentator, in the ad on the left.
19 July, 2006
The J. P. Routens Seat Post, Most Unusual
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5 comments:
The rider in that advert sure looks familiar!
Paul is the greatest. I can't get enough of him and Phil L's commentary on OLN. Even Al Trautwig is a little less annoying this year -- I reckon he has picked up some of the concepts over the past few years. Bob Roll I can do without though. I know people like him. I personally think he's a consummate cheeseball, even if we was a good rider in his day.
That green bike is smashing. Is that a Routens? Of what vintage?
I just hope Phil and Paul are back for next year. Without Lance the Tour ratings are down quite a bit. The French charge an exhorbitant fee for the rights to the Tour (I worked at a company that looked into covering it on-line) I have a feeling televised cycling coverage in the post-Lance era will return to what it was in the pre-Lance era.
I'm actually surprised Paul was considered a good enough rider in his day to be featured in an advert - especially a French language advert. You'd think they would have featured a native son of France, especially since this is when France still had a lot of great riders.
C, you're probably right, I hope not though. The funny thing is, to me, this TdF is much much much more interesting than anything in the Lance era. Plus there's just so much more color since they interview people other than just the Discovery team folks. Funny, I know he's an awesome rider, but I have always found LA to be something of an offputting jerk. Contrast him to, say, Floyd Landis or Dave Zabriskie -- two of the nicest, most unassuming guys you could ever meet.
Anyhow, this TdF reminds me of real bike racing, and doesn't have the ring of a coronation. I've been really enjoying it.
BTW, how good was Paul? Anyone have a clue as to his palmares?
Paul was a good but not great rider. He rode the Tour 5 times with 70th being his best overall placing. Only race of any real note he won was the 4 Days of Dunkirk (kind of ironic for a British rider!)
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