I have not read through all of the CR messages, so I may have missed a post that speaks to this, but Universal, the Italian brake manufacturer made several pre-70's versions of short reach brake calipers including the Mod.51 Universal Extra and the Super 68. They also made a short and long reach version of the Mod.61 centerpull caliper. My mid 60's Cinelli SC uses short reach calipers front and rear...
John Barron Minneapolis
> Tom Dalton <tom_s_dalton@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > I may not be 100% correct here but my general
> impression is this: If it is before the mid 1970's,
> a
> frame is almost certain to be normal (long) reach.
> Mid 70's to late 70's some bikes were short, most
> normal. Late 1970's to early 1980's things were
> quickly moving toward short reach. By the mid 80's
> pretty much all bikes were short reach. Of course,
> this all applies to racing bikes. When It comes to
> touring bikes, normal reach (if not canti's) is the
> rule.
>
> As for the wheel size issue you mentioned, bikes are
> built for EITHER 700C OR 27 inch wheels. A bike is
> either one or it is the other. However, in some
> cases
> people have used longer callipers to covert a 27"
> bike
> to 700c and shorter callipers to go the other way.