[CR] Re: Fontalloy

(Example: Component Manufacturers:Chater-Lea)

Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 14:16:37 -0700
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
From: "Jan Heine" <heine93@earthlink.net>
Subject: [CR] Re: Fontalloy


>There seems to be some confusion over this piece judging by the
>replies off list I have received. I was not remarking about the
>UNIQUENESS OF THE ALUMINUM FRAME but the fact that it had a Aheadset
>type extension fitting in 1950. Was this a first?

Direct clamp stems were common in the 1930s and 1940s among the French constructeurs. See the "Image Archive" of the Vintage Bicycle Quarterly web page http://www.mindspring.com/~heine/bikesite/bikesite/. For example, the 1938/39 Narcisse tandem shown there has one. Our 1948 Rene Herse for Paris-Brest-Paris has one, too.

Difference to today: The steerer was threaded, and the stem did not hold the headset preload. Usually, a smaller diameter tube was brazed into the steerer. The stem clamped onto this tube.

You are right, Mick, not much new these days.

The next Vintage Bicycle Quarterly will feature a lovely 1940s women's Barra with a welded aluminum frame. Incredible and incredibly light. Barra started making aluminum bikes in the mid-1930s. A history of Barra (by Raymond Henry) was published in Cycle History 12, available from Van der Plas. Worth reading!

Usual disclaimer: I know Rob van der Plas, but no business connection beyond him placing an ad in VBQ>

--
Jan Heine, Seattle
Editor/Publisher
Vintage Bicycle Quarterly
http://www.mindspring.com/~heine/bikesite/bikesite/