I think there were three primary reasons for the all-Campy-except-brakes bikes in the early 70s.
1) The Record brakes introduced in 1968 were (I believe) the first brakes Campy ever made, so there was necessarily a long tradition of equipping "all-Campy" bikes with some other brand of brakes.
2) Many bikes, especially French ones, designed for Mafac CP's had clearances too large for the Campy SP's. To use the Campys on these frames, one had to disassemble the brakes and install a "drop bolt" to allow the pads to reach the rim.
3) As others have pointed out, the $50 upgrade to Campy brakes was a big percentage of the cost of a complete bike. For example, in the original edition (1970) of Eugene Sloan's classic "The Complete Book of Bicycling", he quotes the following prices for COMPLETE top-model bikes:
Cinelli Super Corsa - $255 Schwinn Paramount - $245 Peugeot PX-10E - $160
4) For those who liked the look and function of the Campy SP's, Shimano had by the early 70's introduced excellent copies, the original Dura-Ace SP at about half the price of Campy. And the parts were sufficiently interchangeable that a Campy drop bolt could be used to adapt the DA's to a long reach French frame (I did this myself).
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Houston, TX
BrakesetAuthenticity
> Hello-
> All this talk of the non-super record "super record" brakes brings up
a
> brakeset authenticity issue that I have not seen discussed on CR list
before.
> What I am referring to is the rather common, yet hardly ever acknowledged
> custom of (mostly) Italian manufacturers equipping a bike with full Campy
NR
> or SR OEM grouppo save the brakeset.
> Here are some examples that come to mind:
> 1969, 70, 71, 72(maybe) Cinelli SC complete NR except Universal Super 68s.
> 1973, 74(maybe) Mondia complete NR except for Dura Ace brakeset.
> 1971, 72, 73, 74(maybe) Schwinn Paramount, NR except Weinmann C-pulls.
> 1977 (maybe others) Colnago Supers w/SR except Modolo Master Pro brakes
> 1981, 82 (maybe) Rossin w/SR except for Galli Criterium brakeset.
> 1980ish Ciocc Compezzione(sp?) w/SR except Modolo Kronos brakeset.
> Please pardon me if I my vintages are off by a year or two. Any way
you
> get the point. I don't know how many early 1970 Cinelli and Mondia I have
> seen that have had their brakeset switched out to Campy. There's a good
> chance that several people on this list even have this switch-out on their
> bikes.
> I whole-heartedly agree with our group's ethos of originality and
> authenticity. This brakeset issue seems to have dropped below our radar.
Why
> is it even important? Authenticity of a bike is its Spirit, its mojo, its
> "sexiness", its bloodline.
> I believe the folks at Cinelli and Colnago spec'd out their bikes
with
> non-campy brakes for conscious and well though out reasons. Whether it was
> economic or based on astrology or whatever; its the bike's Authenticity.
> Obviously, companies like Colnago and Rossin could have easily spec'd
> Campy SR brakes,,,,,,,but they didn't. To be honest, I don't believe their
> reasons for doing this matters a whole lot. I mean who am I, let alone who
> are we, to tell Ernie C. which way he should have dressed out his bikes in
> the late 70s?
> Long live authentic uniqueness. Long live not blindly going along
with
> the pack. Long live non-campy OEM brakesets and their mojo! OK, thats my
rant
> for the month. Cheers,
> Dave Anderson
> Cut Bank MT