[CR]Now: Brake hoods Was: Pic of the Day - Cyclocross 1950

Jan Heine wrote:
> (snip)
> 6. No rubber handrests: At least in France, Mafac pioneered the
> rubber hand rests around 1949. Prototypes were used in the 1948
> Paris-Brest-Paris. Many bikes through the 1950s did not use them.

Old post with some brake hood info:

Archive-URL: http://search.bikelist.org/getmsg.asp Filename=classicrendezvous.10207.0559.eml Date: Wed, 10 Jul 2002 09:59:29 -0700 From: Chuck Schmidt <chuckschmidt(AT)earthlink.net> 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: \u2022Tour 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. \u2022Giro (Italy) \u2022Universal (Italy) \u2022Balilla (Italy) \u2022Constrictor (England) \u2022GB (England) \u2022Bowden (France) \u2022Weinmann (Switzerland) \u2022Gloria (Italy) \u2022Lam (France) \u2022Follis (France) \u2022Super Amortisseur -- (bottom, second from left) shown on a Gino Bartali lever with finger rest \u2022Amortisseur -- (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?

Anyone on the list want to discuss or have additional info on rubber hoods?

Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, Southern California

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