Re: [CR]Brooks Professional versus Brooks Team Professional - Hammering

(Example: Events:Cirque du Cyclisme)

Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2003 11:45:09 -0600
Subject: Re: [CR]Brooks Professional versus Brooks Team Professional - Hammering
From: "Michael Murphy" <michaelmurphy@mac.com>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
In-Reply-To: <010301c2be4e$394d77e0$7b257044@nebi.com>


On Friday, January 17, 2003, at 11:31 AM, Raoul Delmare wrote:
> Thanks Chuck .
>
> I didn't remember it was 1964 ( earliest date so far ) .
>
> But , to be clear , when was the release of the Brooks
> Professional ?
>
> And , when was the release of the Brooks Team Professional ( with
> the
> large , hand-hammered , rivets ) ?
>
> I was fairly sure that the ones with really large , hand-hammered (
> planished ) rivets , appeared along with the very first Raleigh Team
> Professional bicycles ( 1973-1974 ? ) .
>
> http://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalogs/Raleigh74/02TeamPro.jpg
>
> http://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Catalogs/Raleigh74/23TechSpecs.jpg
>
> ( thanks Mark ! )
>
> P.S. If you can see some similarities between the "hammered"
> finish on
> your fine aluminum alloy fenders , and the "hammered" finish on
> your fine
> copper saddle rivets ( especially the earliest ones ) , and the
> "hammered" finish on your fine silver bowl on display in your formal
> dining
> room , it's called "planishing" . It is done with a planishing
> hammer .
>
> For example :
>
> http://www.lacywest.com/32ham02.htm#Planishing%20Hammers
>
> ( my dad was a silversmith , had his own hallmark and everything )
>
> Raoul Delmare
> Marysville Kansas
>
>

Raoul,

The hammered copper rivet Brooks Pro saddles were available for a year or so before the first Raleigh Team bike arrived. I sold a number of them in my shop. There is a story behind their creation. During the late sixties and seventies the England based Raleigh Professional Racing Team (I don't think that they raced outside of England) members also had to work for Raleigh in the off season. Some of this work was not much more than testing components. (There is a story of how the first SunTour gears were changed because of lessons learned from team use of the initial trial models but that is a story for another time.) Supposedly Trevor Bull, one of their more popular English Raleigh Pro riders, came up with the idea of hammering out the rivets and did so for himself. His team mates like it and he did the same for some of them. Later I understand he personally did the early refit or manufacture in the off season of these team saddles for Raleigh to sell. By the way I think that Trevor Bull is still around as the "director sportif" and manager of a sports bar in England.

Michael Murphy
PO Box 6
Paige, Texas 78659
512 825 2048