jdawginsc 

Hmm...

Doug Fattic 

The lettering above Rider looks like it is written in Cyrillic so maybe that is a post made at the XB3 factory in Kharkov, Ukraine? Weren't you the one that was looking for a bicycle from that factory?

jdawginsc 

I was hoping it was something interesting...darn.

jdawginsc 

Absolutely I am, but unfortunately @hazetguy is right...nothing interesting...

Spaghetti Legs 

That’s Russian (or at least Cyrillic lettering) for “Super”.

sd5782 

It is also the stock seatpost for my 1972 Fuji Newest project. I was halfway looking for one but they seem pricey, and I couldn’t be much of a judge as to how they work or not with the extra bolts just from pictures.

Moe Zhoost

Yes, it's a transliteration for "Super." Odd that they did not treat the word "Rider" the same way.

Doug Fattic 

I was about to say the same thing. The Cyrillic letting above Rider spells "Super" in Russian. Why would a Japanese company use a Russian word written in Cyrillic on a seat post on one of their bikes? There has got to be a story here! I took off the seat and seat post on my XB3 bicycle so I can't tell what seat post they made in Ukraine. They copied other western European bike parts. For example the brakes on my XB3 look like Mafac center pulls although they were made in Ukraine.

sd5782 

Yes, there is a story, but I don’t recall it now. I did see it in my research for the 72 Fuji I mentioned. Someone will chime in shortly.

T-Mar

Yes, it's a Japanese post manufactured by Fujita, who are most famous for their saddles. Offically catalogued as a Hupel Rider.

Doug Fattic 

So again I ask why a Japanese manufacturer would label a seat post they made with the Russian word "Super" written clearly in Cyrillic script? There is no confusing that lettering with Roman letters - or for that matter Japanese Kanji or Hiragana or Katakana. And then to make it more interesting, the did write "Rider" in English with Roman script letters.

I taught English in Sapporo Japan 50 years ago. Sapporo is located on Japan's most northern island not that far from eastern Russia. One time I visited a student's home on the northeast coast where I could look across the sea and see the Kurile Islands governed by Russia. The ownership of these Islands are disputed. The original inhabitants were Ainu that were also the original inhabitants of Hokkaido. Eventually Japanese fisherman lived there because of rich fishing and finally it came governed by Russia as a trophy of war. Not many people live there and the weather and terrain are terrible for cycling but it is possible to see from Japan to Russia without binoculars. If there was a trade connection from Japan to Russia, it would be across the Sea of Japan to Vladivostok Russia. Of course I have no idea if there was/is. I'm just commenting that there isn't great distance between the two countries.

geeteeiii

XB3 Start Shosse had a chrome plated steel seat post, nothing fancy like this. Saddle was a brooks replica. This is a similar style to the higher end soviet bikes like my Meteor, atleast the clamping style with to bolts. Those bikes only had a full aluminium seat post, also they used 2 diameters for the tube i think, 26.2 or 27.2.

martl

you guys saw there is one on velobase?

https://velobase.com/ViewComponent.a...1fd1d&Enum=105

Andy_K 

I visited Russia on a business trip years ago and learned to phonetically sound words out in the Cyrillic alphabet. One evening as I was wondering around downtown Nizhny Novgorod I tried my "skills" on an interesting looking neon sign. After a minute or so of stumbling through it, I figured out that it said "Jackpot"

nomadmax 

Rusty.

sd5782 

Is that seatpost hard to use with the seat clamping bolts on the top where they would be hard to get at?

52telecaster

Looks a lot like a campy

Spaghetti Legs 

I studied Russian in college and did a summer study abroad, mostly in Leningrad (St Petersburg now for you youngsters) in 1989. We were out and about and came across some hungry British sailors looking for a “Pecktopah” . It took a few minutes to realize they were looking for a “restoran” - Russian for restaraunt.

Also of note, that summer there was a bike time trial along the Neva River with the course running from the Hermitage past the Admiralty building, so I watched the guys, a few on funny bikes, for a while. Unfortunately at the time I was mostly a mountain biker and not into pro cycling so I didn’t pay close attention or take pics.

Doug Fattic 

It wasn't convenient but you either pulled up the side of your saddle (if using a leather saddle which were common) to get at the bolts with a regular wrench or bought one of these Campy wrenches

designed just for working on their seat post.

JohnDThompson 

"Super" isn't even a real Russian word, but rather a cognate taken from English. I've seen these posts on bike-boom era Japanese production bikes, but have no explanation for why a Japanese post would have a Cyrillic transliteration of an English word.

JohnDThompson 

Campagnolo, Zeus, Park, ATD, and probably others offered offset wrenches to help with this, but IMO the best tool is a 10mm flex-head ratchet.

Trakhak

Too bad Campagnolo didn't make the front bolt a thumbwheel. Still, it's easy enough to adjust the seat angle by loosening both bolts, tightening the front bolt using your fingers until the saddle position is slightly nose-down when you press down on the back of the saddle, and tightening the rear bolt with an ordinary open- or closed-end wrench.

dmark 

1-S in the catalog pic T-Mar posted looks like a Simplex knock-off.

JohnDThompson 

It is. Sakae Ringyo made one as well.



For that matter, Sakae Ringyo's ubiquitous "Laprade" single-bolt post derives from the original French Laprade post: