Well, if Dan says he did not, he did not. My information came from a conversation with Tom Petrie (I think?) at Velimpex marketing. I think there was some political/business thing going on there. Anyway... what Dan says....

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

http://www.slowtwitch.com/...w/saddles/azoto.html

============================================================================= SELLE SAN MARCO TRIATHGEL AZOTO

I was talking to this company's agent, Tom Petrie, about how his company really nailed the features on this saddle. "This is very close to what I would build if I designed a saddle," I told him.

"You don't have a very good memory, do you," he replied, to which I did not take offense, because it was a true statement of fact. I don't have a good memory.

"Several years ago, when you were at QR," Petrie continued, "we had this same discussion, and as we were at that time your O.E. supplier for saddles we did want to build the saddle you wanted to spec. You told us what to build and here it is."
....

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"dan rights he could not confirm or deny such design work."

did i say that? i did tell selle san marco exactly what i wanted in a saddle, and this goes back to 1998. i wanted a saddle specially made for QR's bikes, a saddle to be spec'd original equipment. thet azoto triathgel was the fruit of that project.

but when i left QR the guy that took over spec'ing the bikes (who'se thankfully no longer there) made some bad choices, imho, including not using the azoto. in view of the azoto's popularity it's obvious that being the first and only bike company to spec an azoto would've been a coup for QR.

likewise, the profile stoker 26 pursuit bar we a design of mine for QR's original equipment spec. but when i left that same fella dropped the idea. after my non-compete was up i called my friends at profile design and told them there was good tooling sitting over in taiwan being unused, and i explained the idea behind the bar.

but the aspide, that saddle i had nothing to do with. i like the aspide, but my favorite is still the azoto, and that's what i ride.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman