I think it was probably the other way around - GB bought and rebadged the Altenburger brakes as their own though I have no direct evidence for this. GB had some fairly close links with Altenburger - they brought in the curious Altenburger rear gear which was chainstay mounted for a while.
Hilary Stone, Bristol, England
Chris Beyer wrote:
> I have a NOS (really!) pair of Altenbergers; I think this design may have
> originated at GB (Hilary?), and was also made/sold as the Weinmann symmetric.
> there's a small cast-in peg on one of the arms, which rides in a slot on the
> other arm, so that the arms move symmetrically and are self-centering.. I
> hope this makes sense........
>
> Chris Beyer
> Bloomfield, NJ
>
> brian blum wrote:
>
>> I have a Synchron brake and it looks like Shimano modified this design for
>> there dual pivot brakes. It was a great idea that failed until the great
>> Shimano design/marketing machine took it on. As a kid my friend had a 1972
>> Columbia(a true fallen classic name) with sidepull brakes by either Dia
>> compe or Altenberger which had a red anodized lever between the arms. Does
>> anyone remember this design and how it worked?