[CR]Italian brakes

(Example: Framebuilders:Tubing)

To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
From: "Frederick J Donkin" <fdonkin@juno.com>
Subject: [CR]Italian brakes
Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2002 21:58:54 -0700

When I was living in Italy in the early seventies, I met some people (mostly teenagers) that were employed assembling brakes out of their homes. They would receive bags of parts and then meet together at one of their houses to assemble the parts into brake assemblies. I cannot remember which company they worked for, nor do I remember anything being stamped on the arms. They were paid by the total number of assemblies.

At one time, the bike I was riding daily (a 4 speed corsa of unkown brand) broke both brake arms (front and rear) during the vacation season (mid August). Not having much money to spend at the time and with most of the shops closed, they were able to provide me with the proper peices to replace the broken parts and get the bike safer to ride.

I mention this only to wonder how many of the company brakes were assembled in this manner.

Rick Donkin
in foggy West Valley City, UT