Re: [CR]Re: Pinnacle?

Okay, call me psycho but...

Most peole feel that the Cobalto calipers were just SR with a stone, and for all practical purposes this is the case. The only other diffs. were in the barrel adjuster o-ring (white, not black) and the fancy blue paint in the stamped logo. Later Cobaltos also had grey tire guide covers. However, and this is where my sanity might be called into question, the earliest Cobaltos were finished differently from the later ones. The later ones had the same finish as the SR while the early ones appear to have been buffed a little more carefully and had a thicker, pearlier anodizing. In fact, the extra buffing appears to have reduced the amount of material on certain areas of the caliper arm. Most people (okay, most of the few people who actually care) will argue that there was just random variation in the finish quality, but I belive there was a change in production process. Perhaps this change was made once it becme obvious that the Cobalto was going to be more than a stop-gap measure until the Delta was sorted out. "Okay, Valentino's niece can't keep up with the extra hand-buffing step, let's bag it."

Additional evidence for my oh-so-important theory is that none of the Cobaltos with the later style lever feature the nicer finish, while most of the sets with the old lever do have the nice finish. Old lever? New lever? Ah yes another little known Cobalto tidbit. I could save it for later but...

The original Cobaltos used the original Delta brake lever. It never got used on the Delta once they were reintroduced. It had a very long reach. It looked really cool, but I guess not everyone could easily reach it. Later Cobaltos levers were stubby, chunky and not much to look at. They are the more common type. Without a set of each to look at it might be hard to understand the difference, but once you see it, it's unmistakeable. In general (perhaps always) the old style had hex nuts on the clamp while the newer ones had the easier-to-access allen nuts. There are also two variants of the old lever that differ in the placement of the cable carrier, presumably to alter the amount of leverage, perhaps in an effort to sort out the delta problems.

Tom Dalton