Ed-
You bring up a good point RE:
>>appears to undercut the common assumption that the Univerasal 68's followed Campagnolo's <<
I wasn't into bikes that far back, but from what I have seen of bikes from that era, I can at least speculate what I think is going on.
Universal had a side-pull model generically named "EXTRA" that had the same quick release mechanism as did the Super 68s. As far as I can tell this Extra Model debuted sometime around 64+/-.
The main difference between this Extra model and Super 68s were that the Extras had larger reach than did the front, whereas the Super 68s had same size reach on both front and back
This Extra model appears to be no slouch for its time from what I could see it was still in production up on into the 70s along with Super 68s.
In other words, there is a good chance that the Universal sidepulls you refer to may have been the Extra model as opposed to the Super 68s. Someone else who has first hand knowledge of bikes back then hope fully will come forward to confirm or deny my best guess here.
Best Regards-
Nels Cone
Seattle WA
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 20:03:26 -0400
> From: edvintage63@aol.com
> Subject: [CR] Eddy Merckx FAEMA bike (Ed Granger)
>
>
> Angel,
>
> The bikes ridden by the Faema team in 1968 indeed bore Faema decals, rather than Eddy Merckx decals, from what I've seen. At the back of the glossy but indifferently researched Campagnolo 75th Anniversary book is a photo of Adorni winning the '68 World RR on a Faema decaled bike. The famous Tre Cime stage in the snow was also '68 - by '69, the bikes were badged "Eddy Merckx," AFAIK. There are a few photos from the Eddy-tribute Cycle Sport issue of several years ago that also show that Eddy was on a "Faema" decaled bike on the Tre Cime - they're blurry enough because of the conditions in which that stage was ridden that you kind of have to look closely to realize this. Eddy's bike on that stage also appears to have sidepulls, which were presumably Universal '68's, indicating these were available before the Campagnolo sidepulls debuted at the end of that season (and as seen in the Campagnolo book photo of Adorni). This appears to undercut the common assumption that the Univerasal 68's followed Campagnolo's lead rather than the other way around.
>
> Ed Granger
> Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________________
> I've been looking through Gazzetta dello Sport's 100th anniv. Giro book and
> there is a great photo of Eddy Merckx riding a bike with F on the headtube
> and seattube panel; the F has above what would appear to be the shape of a
> cathedral (like Albero Masi uses representing the Doumo of Milano). I'm 95%
> sure the downtube says FAEMA. It's a black and white photo in which the bike
> is all white with the exception of the headtube and seatube panel. There is
> no date attributed to the photo but the caption says, in Italian, "Eddy
> Merckx winning the Gorizia-Tre Cime di Lavaredo stage".
>
> I then hit the archives and found a couple of references to 1969 Faema
> bikes, and made by Masi. Interesting.
>
> The book has hundreds of photos. Anyone interested in Giro history should
> order one from the publisher, see COMMENTS (don't know if available
> elsewhere):
> http://italiancyclingjournal.blogspot.com/
>
> Angel Garcia
> Long Valley, NJ
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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