RE: [CR]Was Piniarello now Pegoretti

Wayne Bingham wrote:
> Speaking of Pegoretti, what about the new Luigino frame? Lugged
> construction, flat fork crown, even top-of-the-BB routed cable guides.

George Gibbs, proprietor of Il Vecchio bike shop in Seattle, has a Luigino on order - I can't wait to see it! He had a poster with lush detail photos, like the website only better. Looks like an instant classic!
> what I'm really curious about is that the brake levers, with
> proper gum hoods, appear to have aero cable routing!
> More digital image trickery or ???????

I made one pair of completely aero old Record (NR) levers in the 80's. I put a snapshot up at http://bulgier.net/pics/bike/Campy/Aero_NR_Lever.jpg The pivoting barrel that holds the cable end is replaced with a sealed-bearing pulley. The cable end goes in the socket where the cable housing is supposed to go, and the cable goes down, around the front of the pulley, and follows the pulley 90 degrees until it is heading straight back. It passes under the bolt that mounts lever to bar The "perch" or whatever you call the main, dark anodized piece, is counterbored from the back as a housing stop at this cable exit point. The handlebar must also be drilled, and the housing runs inside the bar to another hole in the bar, about where you stop taping, ~3cm from the stem.

I rode and raced these and liked them, but couldn't make them for customers due to the liability risk. The cable running over such a small-diameter pulley will eventually cause the cable to fatigue, so it must be replaced, ideally on a schedule such that it never gets to the point of popping any individual strands. I did slot the front of the lever, partly to show off the tricky workings within, but also so I could easily inspect the cable and replace it if it started to fray. It never did fray for me, but I only rode with them a few years and did replace cables each year.

Then there's the hassle and risk involved in drilling the bars. I stripped the plastic coating off just that bit of cable housing that was in the bar, to minimise the size of the hole, and I deburred and polished the hole inside and out to minimize crack-inducing stress risers. The pros rode drilled bars for a few years until grooved bars came out, but that doesn't make it a good idea for regular riders who don't have a contract that includes fresh bars each year. A few brands of handlebar were actually sold on the retail market already drilled, and some of those did break.

Mark Bulgier
Seattle, Wa
USA