Tom, my experience is that it didn't matter where the frame was built. Up until about 1982-83 timeframe, most frames that had braze-ons for water bottle cages only had one. It was rare to see more than one on a frame made before then in my opinion. Regarding the frame pump mounting, I don't know whether the advent of the little ball/pin on the back of the headtube for the pump to be mounted under the toptube came about because of the second cage being added to the seattube or whether that was popular even when there was no mount on the seattube. My own experience was similar to other posts. I didn't understand hydration or nutrition requirements while riding when I first started riding rides of more than an hour, so tended to get by with only one bottle, not even bothering to stop to refill when water was available. I think that stems from the time in the 60s and 70s during sports and military training when it was considered less than masculine to drink water while exer cising/training. I guess that was why we ate salt tablets back then like they were candy. Lou Deeter, Orlando FL USA
-----Original Message----- From: Tom Sanders <tom@orderandchaos.com> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Sent: Wed, Apr 28, 2010 8:19 am Subject: [CR] Why do on topic bikes have only one water bottle boss? Is this a country of origin thing?
I read Dale's comment on Italian makers eschewing multiple bosses and others remarking on a seat tube mounting interfering with some air pumps. I have owned mostly American bikes, (although many others have passed through my hands) and I must say that many American bikes did have multiple water bottle bosses. If I am remembering correctly, of the 14 or so American bikes I have in my more or less permanent collection, only the Paramounts don't have. Sometimes the second one was on the bottom of the down tube, but I'd say the majority had multiple bosses. Was this a North American thing?
Tom Sanders
Lansing, MI USA