Mark,
I guess there is no way to be 100% certain. It certainly is possible that the levers I have are modified NR levers and then anodized. The drilling does appear to have been done prior to anodizing. So, either the are genuine SR, or someone went to a lot of trouble to modify these. The chamfer of each hole is very uniform relative to all the other holes. There is no distortion of the holes. So, that would show that the drilling to be done after the lever was formed.
Your observation of the early Raleigh & Benotto catalog is correct. I'll take your word on the Benotto since I do not have that catalog, but I can confirm your observation on the Raleigh catalog since I do have that one. Yes, this does make it difficult to corroborate whether the ones I have are genuine.
Another wrinkle: #17 catalog show the SR lever as having (9) holes on the outer rows, and the middle row having (10). Yikes!, this complicates things even further.
I'll start researching this further. Maybe some pics of Eddie Merckx's bikes from the '73-'75 period will show SR levers? To those interested in this thread, let's see if we can turn up any more pics/info regarding these.
Marc Boral Long Beach, CA
-------Original Message-------
From: Mark Bulgier Date: Sunday, July 14, 2002 13:53:19 To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: RE: [CR]1st Edition Super Record brake levers FOUND!
Marc, I trust your expertise, but just to be completely clear: how can you be sure these are Super Record, and not early Record that someone drilled? Are the holes distorted from the lever being formed after the holes were made, like on the SR we all know, or do you think they were drilled after the lever was formed? Does it look like the holes are anodized inside, as they would be if the anodizing were done after the holes were drilled?
Also, you wrote:
> "Normal" SR levers have 3 vertical rows of holes with
> (10) holes in each row. 1st Edit. levers have only
> (9) holes in each row.
I just looked at the Benotto and Raleigh catalogs and those levers both have 10 holes per row. So maybe you have yet another variation?
Mark Bulgier Seattle, Wa USA _______________________________________________
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