Brad Orr wrote:
> Having lived through the "swiss cheese bike" era as a rather impressionable
> teenager, I was an active participant in the "my bike is holier than your
> bike" mania. To make matters worse, I had access to a milling machine with
> such attachments as dividing heads and rotary tables at my highschool.
> This equipment gave me the ability to do quite a few things that cannot be
> done well by hand (like equally spaced flutes / grooves in seatposts,
> diametral and radial slotting instead of just "plain" holes in chainrings,
> etc.). So on weeknights when I wasn't working in the bike shop, I'd stay
> after school and modify bike components - resulting in a lot of bartering
> with my fellow area bike nuts after they had seen some examples on my bike.
>
> The part I'd break most often? Downtube shift levers.... because I didn't
> drill them, I would totally remove all the Campagnolo lettering leaving only
> the outer perimeter. I would have this "hoop" with walls only about 3/32"
> (2.25mm) thick. Score a full "10" for "coolness", but only rate about a "2"
> (or possibly less!) for reliability. But it was a relatively inexpensive
> part back then, so I kept perpetuating the folly.
> On the other hand, it only took me breaking one brake lever to realize that
> "more air than metal" was a bad concept when applied here! It was not a
> Campy lever, it was either a Weinmann or Mafac.... can't remember which.
> I didn't have enough engineering smarts at that age.
>
> The real turning point for me was going to Bloor Cycle in Toronto in 1973
> and seeing a Colnago hanging in the window. It was the wildest thing I
> had ever seen. It was a time-trial built special, with absolutely every
> component lightened in some way. The frame had no paint, the tubing had
> a delicate "brushed" look to it, decalwork was blue and the frame had a
> light clearcoat. I talked to the salesman and he peeled back an unglued
> tubular to show me how the inside of the rim had "holes" dimple-drilled
> part way into the alloy. The bike was not for sale, it was on loan from
> Colnago to them. The salesman said it was around 18 pounds.
>
> I promptly went home and built a set of 28 hole Record hubs and the Mavic
> gold Record du Monde rims, the lightest thing I could find at that time.
> Like I had seen on the Colnago, I drilled into the rims. Actually I
> drilled through the rims, further demonstrating my lack of engineering
> prowess. Then, like the Colnago, I built a radially laced front wheel.
> No one I rode with had done this yet, there was still not a mainstream
> consensus on these wheels yet.
> One night, leaving work after dark, I was riding my bike across a large
> parking lot at a fair clip.... and didn't see the curb I was approaching.
> I was launched over the front, and the rim was in three pieces.
> I've always thought it might have only been heavily dented or two pieces
> if I hadn't drilled those holes.... NOT recommended.
your hole-y spirit and enthusiasm for drillium is alive and still kicking .... a pic of a very neat job below.
http://forums.consumerreview.com/
sure, its well past the list time period but at least its attached to what appears to be a well made lugged steel frameset by Nakagwa in Japan (they like pink).
http://www.nakagawa-cw.co.jp/
anyone tried a Kobe beef hide covered saddle?
ciao,
ben "drillium wallet" kamen - NYC