Re: I: [CR]Was eBay Bianchi, Now Universal Brake Dating

(Example: Framebuilders:Rene Herse)

From: "Chuck Schmidt" <chuckschmidt@earthlink.net>
To: Classic Rendezvous <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: Re: I: [CR]Was eBay Bianchi, Now Universal Brake Dating
References: <005f01c2910d$62578360$6501a8c0@mtlrel01.nj.comcast.net>
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 19:38:58 -0700

Steven Maasland wrote:
>
> Chuck's earlier post makes me agree that there may be questions about the
> brake levers. The bike in questions is however post-1952, so the brake hoods
> won't point one way or the other. In Augendre's book, you can also see Coppi
> with Vittoria donut ring 'full' brake hoods prior to 1952.

Here's an old post about a 1954 Vittoria advert that shows all the manufacturers they supplied hoods to:

Subject: [CR]Brake Hoods in 1954

The following ad from an April 1954 French magazine shows the Vittoria (Torino, Italy) line of brake hoods for many different brake manufacturers. It looks to me like Vittoria had the patent on the rubber hood. It also looks to me like rubber hoods were not in existence before the 1930s. And not even that common until after WWII?

Here is the ad: http://www.velo-retro.com/vittoria.hoods.jpg

(I don't have the original ad just a photocopy so what you see on your monitors is about as good as the photocopy is. I can't quite read all the text.)

Listed: •Tour de France "Bartali" -- (Upper left) Just a ribbed tube to slide over lever body. A very early rubber hood? Gino Bartali won the TdF in 1938 and 1948. •Giro (Italy) •Universal (Italy) •Balilla (Italy) •Constrictor (England) •GB (England) •Bowden (France) •Weinmann (Switzerland) •Gloria (Italy) •Lam (France) •Follis (France) •Super Amortisseur -- (bottom, second from left) shown on a Gino Bartali lever with finger rest •Amortisseur -- (bottom center) a small hood for lever body top that predates the early MAFAC of the same style. This might be Vittoria's first gum hood?

The Vittoria box shown mentions "34 Championati del Mondo" as of April 1954.

Chuck Schmidt
SoPas, SoCal