I've got a full C-Record/Cobalto group on a bike that has the crank arms dated '84 (4 in a circle), and has the stamped, not etched logo. My guess is that the bike was originally built in '85. These are the earliest C-Record arms I've seen. Cheers,
Duane kennard
> From: "Stockwell, Brad" <BRAD.STOCKWELL@mpp.cpii.com>
> Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2001 10:52:54 -0800
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Subject: [CR]Campy: Beginning of the End...
>
> CR Folk:
>
> Someone asked recently when the first C-Record equipment came out: an
> event which bookends the classic era.
>
> After having spent the whole year on Super Record equipment, in August of
> the 1985 cycling season (during the Coors Classic) Bernard Hinault rode a
> criterium in Reno with a '4-arm' C-Record crank & derailleur.
>
> This horrifying apparition is depicted on page 154 of the Merckx book:
> 'The Fabulous World of Cycling, Vol. 4'. The bike still had SR brakes.
> None of Hinault's teammates, including eventual winner LeMond, are pictured
> flaunting the funky new gear.
>
> By the beginning of the '86 season, the game was up -- almost everybody
> was on the stuff. Pandora's box opened to unleash a flood of unanticipated
> debasements: white lever hoods, blue plastic gemstones, and the unabashed
> cliplessness which yet plagues our youth.
>
> Brad Stockwell
> Palo Alto