Hi Jerry. History repeated itself in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Wh en the cold war ended allot of aviation people went looking for other indus tries that could use there skills, and found a home in the bicycle business . The early 1990's is when the first carbon fiber frames, titanium compone nts, and other "aero" assisted items started showing up in bike shops. In fact, I recall one of the first Kestrel adds telling us the bike had been designed by rocket scientist. Silly, but true.
There other contribution was to bring modern CNC machining to the manufactu ring of bike parts, which is a big reason we saw so much improvement in the 1990's. Overall, I'm grateful to these people for there good works.
Tom (rainy and cold) Harriman. San Francisco, Ca 94110
> Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 12:35:41 -0800
> From: jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net
> Subject: Re: [CR]Re: When did aluminum become reliable?
> To: Philcycles@aol.com; heine94@earthlink.net; tom_s_dalton@yahoo.com; cl
assicrendezvous@bikelist.org
>
> No coinicidence at all. Lots of companies were involved in both aircraft
and bicycle manufacturing or parts thereof. Lots more individuals came to
work in the bicycle industry with skills acquired in the aviation industry
.
>
> As the cutting edge of technology between the world wars, aviation spun
off technology to lots of other industries, just as the American and Russi
an space programs after WWII spun of technologies in titanium manufacturing
, electronics, computing, etc. Not sure about carbon fibre. Did this orig
inate in the space industry before it became so prevalent in Formula One?
>
> Regards,
>
> Jerry Moos
> Big Spring, TX
>
>
>
> Philcycles@aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 1/21/08 9:35:05 AM, heine94@earthlink.net writes:
>
>
> > My initial point was that many 1930s aluminum alloy parts appear to
> > have been reliable - not 100% (but what is?), but reliable enough to
> > find widespread acceptance. The 1930s also appear to have been the
> > time when aluminum alloys first saw widespread use in high-end
> > bicycles.
> >
>
> It cannot be a coincidence that aircraft use of aluminium became wide spr
ead
> in the 30s. Remember also that 531 was originally developed for aircraft
use
> in the 30s.
> Phil Brown
> Cold and wet in Berkeley, Calif.
>
>
> **************
> Start the year off right. Easy
> ways to stay in shape.
>
> http://body.aol.com/