Tom Dalton wrote:
>
> Bought a pair of Nisi 36 hole tubular rims this
> weekend. They are silver, with little or no
> anodizing. There is one sticker that reads "Mercurio
> d'Oro 1977" and another that reads "for professional
> bicycle only." With a sticker like that, how could I
> pass them up? They have no ferrules and the eyelets
> are only visilble from the tire side of the rim (just
> little washers sitting inside the rim. These rims are
> also "factory drilled" with two thinned out areas
> between adjacent spoke holes. They seem to be pretty
> light. So...
>
> Anyone know the name of this rim?
> Its intended use?
> Was it a high-end rim? or a junker?
> This pair obviously dates from 1977 or later, but does
> anyone know when these rims were introduced?
>
> Thanks,
> Tom Dalton
Name: Mercurio? Intended Use: Professional Use? High end or Junker: No one goes to the extra cost of drilling the rim bed on a junk rim? Introduction Date: 1977?
They us'ta be Nisi Sludi in the early 1970s (hard anodized and polished versions) and something else before then. There is not much you can do to a sew-up rim out of extruded aluminum to make it lighter than it already is. Pretty much unchanged from the early 1930s till the late 1990s except for the alloys used.
Chuck Schmidt
South Pasadena, Southern California