When I started road racing and cycling in competition, Cinelli Unicanitor was the No. 1 saddle and as a cheaper alternative, there was Arius Gran Carrera. That has been a stable situation for years.
All of a sudden, there was the Concor saddle, a bit later the Turbo, Rolls, and then the situation changed every year. Since then, not a single saddle type was that dominant again.
But during these monopoly situations, there have been some interesting alternatives.
One of them used to be Selle Royal Super Contour. This used to be a top class racing saddle, without the dominant position of Unicanitor or Concor.
For some reason, I have the memory, that Gazelle put these saddles on their road bikes as an alternative, another hi end saddle, to set themselves off from the competition.
But I guess that the famous Gazelle amateur racing team used Unicanitors and, later, Rolls. Even the old Gazelle catalogues don't show a single Super Contour.
The only thing I can think of is that these saddles were in Gazelle's wholesale department as some kind of unique item.
Anyway, for some reason Selle Royal Super Contour is saddle with a high value to me.
High quality, super appearance, high image.
But low quantities, thus hard to get. There're just a few pieced on Flickr and even no listing in Velobase. Recently, one was sold on Ebay by Roman Hermann in Lichtenstein and that one went for over EUR 100.- ...
Yesterday, I went to a yearly bike jumble. Walked in at 10:15, paid my EUR 2.- entrance fee and started walking around the tables with all kind of junk. Approximately at table no. 10, there it was! A Super Contour! I picked it up, saw that it was brand new. When I looked at the seller, I realised that I knew this man. We had a nice chat, picked up some memories and finally made a deal for the saddle. Ridiculously low amount.
Funny is, that nearly every time you se this kind of saddle, it has either a Gazelle or a Moser logo or name on it.
So, it looks like Selle Royal made some special arrangements with some good customers.
I'll try to collect a bit more information about this saddle type and its history. For sure, it will not be easy.
