Tom,
The previous owner of these two bikes assures me that the two headsets on the bikes are original and have never been changed, swapped or updated. He was fanatical about stripping and repacking regularly and I know him well enough that this makes sense to me. I believe the earlier (early to late 60's) headsets did not have the <C> and that the <C> came about ~1970.
I was just speculating on what John Barron had said; "These started with a <C> on the lower cup (early 70's) and finished without" when I pondered the idea that perhaps there was a no <C>, no period headset later. I have no examples in hand, and that's another reason I asked.
So I think the earlier (1960's) sets like on my '65 Frejus and Aldo's '68 Paramount (and the '61 Frejus that sold on eBay last year) all had:
BREV. CAMPAGNOLO ITALY BREV. CAMPAGNOLO ITALY (no <C> anywhere)
Sometime around 1970 we get the <C> and drop one of the ITALYs on the lower cup. Perhaps the periods are just noise to this detail, but I noticed them, so I thought I'd mention them.
I have no idea when they actually stopped making this headset and what it looked like then, but for the moment I've got enough to convince me that both of the headsets on the two machines I'm dealing with are correct and original, which is what originally started this inquiry. And to get everybody else to look too closely at their headsets and wonder. :-)
David Bilenkey Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
> -----Original Message-----
> From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org
> [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org]On Behalf Of Tom Dalton
> Sent: May 23, 2003 10:11 AM
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Subject: [CR]check your steel Campagnolo headsets please
>
>
> David,
> This is going to be some challenging detective work. There are a
> couple of things to consider: 1) One or more of your headsets may
> be newer or older than the frame in which its mounted (though if
> it is significantly newer it is probably not original, whatever
> that means) 2) Campy may have switched back-and-forth on some of
> the minute details, such as the periods, through time. One
> reason for this, as was pointed out to me by the esteemed Mr.
> Maasland, is that dies wear out, get switched around, etc.
>
> I never noticed the no-periods, one-period, two-period
> differences before. I will keep an eye out to try, over time, to
> make a story out of this, but it may never happen. You
> mentioned a no-<C> no-periods lower cup as what you expect would
> be the last version. Is this just speculation, or have you seen
> one? If you havent I there any good reason to think that the
> periods were removed at some late date. All my newer headsets
> have periods after each BREV.
>
> Here is what I think the story is: Overall the early headsets
> had the <C> and the later ones did not. There are also some
> differences in the crown races early on. I dont think that
> Campy would add the <C> and drop it again, but you never know. I
> think it is much more likely that the sequence was:
>
> BREV CAMPAGNOLO ITALY BREV CAMPAGNOLO <C> (your 72 Bevilacqua)
>
> BREV CAMPAGNOLO ITALY BREV. CAMPAGNOLO <C> (Kurts the 70 Bartali)
>
> BREV. CAMPAGNOLO ITALY BREV. CAMPAGNOLO <C> (I have a loose one like this)
>
> BREV. CAMPAGNOLO ITALY BREV. CAMPAGNOLO ITALY (your 65 Frejus)
>
> Of course, this is completely at odds with the dates of the
> bikes, but one would only need to call on two conditions to
> resolve this.
>
> 1) The headset in the Frejus is not original, or the bike
> was originally assembled well after the vintage of the frameset.
>
> 2) The unit on the Bevilacqua was a couple years old when it
> was installed.
>
> The majority of the part-to-part differences that I see in NR and
> SR stuff are in the stamped-in logos and other markings. It is
> difficult to impossible to really nail down the sequences of
> variations to this level of detail, try as I do. It is even
> harder to put absolute dates on the changes. For my purposes, I
> figure early 70s NR headsets have the <C> later ones do not.
>
> Tom Dalton
> Looking too hard in Bethlehem, PA