RE: [CR] Elusive Mafac vertical brake hanger.

(Example: History:Norris Lockley)

From: "Bob Hanson" <theonetrueBob@webtv.net>
Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2006 01:37:35 -0700
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: RE: [CR] Elusive Mafac vertical brake hanger.


Thanks to everyone who has contacted me on and off list about this gizmo. I might add that it was used on this particular bike after Peugeot abandoned cantilever brakes on this model in favor of long reach center-pulls after 1973.

In addition to making a rock solid hold for the heavy steel fenders, using this device, combined with the extra-long reach center-pull calipers now offered an additional and very shrewd advantage. By substituting shorter reach calipers like the mafac "Racer", the very frameset could then support both 650B and 700C wheels (I tried it!).

On the consumer end, I think this versatility is a great advantage, and on the manufacturing side, this of course effectively minimized the number of platforms on which to base many different models. Pretty clever move... HA! ~ Pity they had not also eliminated French threads on their bikes decades before they finally succumbed to ISO uniformity.

Bob Hanson, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA