At 12:37 AM -0400 9/11/02, Sheldon Brown wrote:
>The black parts on wartime bikes do not, I believe have anything to
>do with blackouts either, but have to do with the shortage of
>chromium, which was a critical stragegic material not available for
>civilian use during the war.
The blackout story info came from an old customer who would run
communications from one shelter to another as a youth in the war. He
told me the story after seeing my Raleigh one-speed which was exactly
like the one he used. He told me that they only used the all black
bikes or painted their regular bikes because nothing reflective was
allowed one the streets. I'm sure this is just one of those cases
where something done for one reason is pressed into service for
another too. I know about the lack of chromium and metals rationing
causing many parts not to be chromed, but we've all seen chromed
parts from the wartime period too. So this leads to the question of
are the chromed parts we see on wartime bikes and just after actually
from before the war?
enjoy,
Brandon"monkeyman"Ives
SB, CA
--
++++++++++++++
"Nobody can do everything, but if everybody
did something everything would get done."
--Gil Scott-Heron--
++++++++++++++
Elfie and Monkeyboy's Wurld uv Wunder
http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/
++++++++++++++