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

(Example: Component Manufacturers:Campagnolo)

In-Reply-To: <33F8A2CC-B755-4FA4-80B1-36844E108FE0@earthlink.net>
References: <a05210606c1062c9608d8@[192.168.1.33]>
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 12:34:05 -0700
To: Chuck Schmidt <chuckschmidt@earthlink.net>
From: "Jan Heine" <heine94@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [CR]Now: Brake hoods Was: Pic of the Day - Cyclocross 1950
cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org

In Le Cycle 9/25/1948, Rebour mentioned under "The bike of Paris-Brest," that the Mafac rubber hoods used hopefully soon would be available to the general public.

Don't know about any other makers. One problem is that rubber hoods perish, so if an old bike doesn't have them, it might just mean that the owner has cut them off when they went bad... rather than that there weren't any to begin with.

The drawing of the Rene Herse bike that accompanied the above-mentioned article is at:

http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com/rebour.html

(Note that Rebour apparently took the geometry measurements from a photo. Thus, they are approximate. All Herse randonneur bikes from the late 1940s/early 1950s that I have measured had fork rakes around 73 mm, head angles of 73 degrees and thus less geometric trail. They also had shallower seat angles than the 74 degrees Rebour quoted.)

Jan Heine Editor/Publisher Vintage Bicycle Quarterly c/o Il Vecchio Bicycles 140 Lakeside Ave, Ste. C Seattle WA 98122 http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com


>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:
>*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?
>
>Anyone on the list want to discuss or have additional info on rubber hoods?
>
>Chuck Schmidt
>South Pasadena, Southern California

>

>.