>And on a side note below; on those brackets for lamps. I've broken everyone
>ever made at least twice. I think these also contribute to a high percentage
>of DNF in Randonnee's like the PBP but this is theory. Nineteen years after
>purchase and 40K miles the 4 lamps and brackets on my Rene Herse seem fine.
i have to agree with this - stock lamp brackets that mount under the brake bolt or whatever are generally are lame. if you can find or have made a rack with light mounts or some other more "permanent solution, its the way to go. the custom tubular steel platform rack on the front of my work bike has twin lamp brackets below the platform, one on either side of the wheel. twin lamps are overkill, but especially nice, cause they allow you to aim one at the road immediately in front of you so you can see your path, and one at a more level angle, to illuminate signs and catch the eyes of drivers. ive got twin lumotecs driven off of a schmidt hub dynamo, and its swell.
the downside is, custom rack work is highly time-consuming for a builder, and therefore quite expensive. i think my rack has something like 30+ brazed joints, and being a one-off, didnt really have a jig set up for it... and then theres the need for tube-bending equipment etc etc... if i hadnt gotten my rack as part of a deal from my framebuilder, it likely would have cost me near $200+! but at the same time, if it had, it would have paid for itself by now, easily, in terms of loads carried for $...
the whole "constructeur" concept is fascinating to me - the french magazines of the 30s-50s or so are *filled* with ads for builders whose names most wont even recognize these days, and the rebour drawings collected in books like the data book (though accompanied by guesswork, cause all the captions are omitted...) are illustrative of the level and extent of customization of both frames and components in france during that period.
one of these days, i may just go through all the issues of "le cycliste" i have, and attempt to put together something with translations of all the captions i can find for rebour stuff, just so people without those early magazines can have a bit of explanation for the data books illustrations without captions... you can figure out what most things are, and who made some of them, but that was something that has always peeved me about that book...
ranbling again...
-joel
--
joel metz : magpie@messengers.org : http://www.blackbirdsf.org/
bike messengers worldwide : ifbma : http://www.messengers.org/
po box 191443 san francisco ca 94119-1443 usa
==
i know what innocence looks like - and it wasn't there,
after she got that bicycle...