Re: [CR] Early SR lever shape, really, hallucinating

(Example: Framebuilding:Restoration)

Date: Tue, 16 Jul 2002 08:25:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Tom Dalton" <tom_s_dalton@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [CR] Early SR lever shape, really, hallucinating
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
In-Reply-To: <9d.2abd349c.2a60ed09@cs.com>


Greg Parker wrote: "What makes you think it was part of those changes ?" The only thing that makes me think that the lever shape took palce at the same time as the CPSC changes is that I have never seen a bike that I know to be OE, with the new levers and the old calipers, nor have I seen the old levers with the new calipers. Like you say, don't believe catalogs, and I'll add, "don't go by what you see mounted in a bike unless you have very good reason to beileve that the bike is OE." Photos from races are a good guide, however. Teams can use old stuff after new stuff is intro'd, but using the first appearence of a new part gives a minimum age. You can then track when "pros only" or prototype stuff comes into braoder use. Just for fun. So, the only reason I believe what I do about the CPSC/lever reach changes is because I have observed the correlation so consistently that I had to decide whether it is a real correlation or a set of wild coincidences. Occam's razor sez... Hey, not rocket science, just bike science. Tom Dalton Bethlehem, PA

GPVB1@cs.com wrote: Tom:

The brake lever reach change probably occurred way before the 1977 CPSC-mandated changes. What makes you think it was part of those changes? It was done to make the lever easier to reach....

On the Benotto catalog jpeg in question, it's really difficult to see it either way, but it looks to me like those are early NR levers with black dots drawn on them to make them look like SR levers (note the size/shading difference between the dots on the left-hand lever and the right-hand one).

Again, catalog pics. don't always represent reality. Have you ever seen a catalog shot of a car where the "crease" of the sheetmetal has been highlighted with an airbrush or, more recently, digital techniques? It really surprised me the first time a designer pointed it out clearly to me...

Still need to see a real one to believe there's a Loch Ness monster....

Anyone have any long-reach SR brake levers for sale?

Greg Parker A2 MI USA

Tom D. wrote:
> First gen. SR brake lever naysayers:
>
> Take a look at the levers on this here Bee-notta
>
> ftp://ftp.bates-lee.org/pub/benotto%232/4.jpg
>
> Do they really look like normal SR levers to you? They sure look like
> early, pre-CPSC Record levers to me, but with holes. Given that this is a
> very early SR bike, and obviously predates the CPSC changes that lead to
> the second Record lever shape, I'd say that SR levers were changed in the
> same manner. Up to 1977 they were a bit more swoopy and pointy, and sat at
> a different angle due to the big difference at the top. Why do we see so
> few of these? Good question.

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