# Old Lobdell Seat?



## ridingtoy (Aug 19, 2011)

Is this an old Lobdell seat? http://www.ebay.com/itm/vintage-bicycle-seat-/170683718943?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27bd8add1f

If so, was Lobdell the only maker of horizontal spring seats? Interesting how the mechanics of the seat are designed to allow the springs to work in a horizontal plane. Always wondered what one of these horizontal spring seats looked like on the underside. Though it seems like it would be a little more expensive to make an undercarriage like that...then again maybe not.

Dave


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## Freqman1 (Aug 19, 2011)

It is but this is a girls seat. The boys model has a much longer 'nose'. v/r Shawn


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## chitown (Aug 19, 2011)

View attachment 25554

Troxel had a patent on this beaut filed in 1936. Don't know if it ever made it into production. Could have just been a prototype.

http://www.google.com/patents?id=6DZuAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false


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## DMNCLNR (Aug 19, 2011)

A girls shelby airflow I use to own had that seat.. Very cool design, and yes it was a Lobdell


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## ridingtoy (Aug 19, 2011)

chitown said:


> View attachment 25554
> 
> Troxel had a patent on this beaut filed in 1936. Don't know if it ever made it into production. Could have just been a prototype.
> 
> http://www.google.com/patents?id=6DZuAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false




Never saw one like in that Troxel patent on a bicycle, but I remember someone having a motorcycle in the neighborhood back in the 1960s with a very similarly designed seat on it.



DMNCLNR said:


> A girls shelby airflow I use to own had that seat.. Very cool design, and yes it was a Lobdell




It's interesting to see holes in the metal pan for stitching the cover on. Usually the old leather and oil cloth covers on single pan seats were stitched just below the pan edge. Wonder how hard that was to line up the needle with the holes, whether hand or machine stitched?

Dave


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## chitown (Aug 19, 2011)

ridingtoy said:


> Wonder how hard that was to line up the needle with the holes, whether hand or machine stitched?
> 
> Dave




I have a shell like that one and there is a metal band that is of smaller gauge than the seat pan and it looks like it was soldered  on and pre-punched with a hole punch. So I was thinking these were hand stitched or the machine could punch through the thinner metal. Mine also looks like after the cover was sewn on, half the thinner metal band was folded inward to hide the stitching.


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