Grant,
Thanks for doing the research on this. Really, really, really, I was going to reply with my guess on this one. As it happens, 1982 to 1983 would have been my guess. I bought my first set of Campy shifters at the very beginning of 1983, just after Christmas '82. They were the old style. If the new style was widely available by then, I would have known of their existence and agonized over the "buy the new one vs. buy the 'proven' one" issue. Even then, at the age of 14, I was and old grouch reluctant to embrace the new. Anyway, I remember first seeing a set of the new ones not long after buying my first set of the old ones... and telling myself that older is cooler.
There were at least four types of Record shifters during the 70's and 80's, in addition to all the strange and rare shifters prior to that (open C's, different numbers of bumps, chrome on bronze...) Just looking at the 70's and 80's, I recall:
1) Bumpy levers, flat external chrome washer, casing seat on lever stop. (relatively rare)
2) Bumpy lever, flat external chrome washer, plain lever stop (somewhat rere)
3) Bumpy lever, conical chrome external washer, plain lever stop (not so rare, probably correct for your 1980 Colnago.)
4) Smooth lever, conical washer, plain stop (dime a dozen these days.)
Simply put: they lost the housing stops, then they changed the chrome washer, and then they changed the lever itself. Sorry, I only know the sequence, no firm dates.
<snip> This is interesting to me because, like the "world globe" lever hoods (up to and including 1982 as well), it seems that the "older" levers aren't nearly as "old" as I originally thought!!
Is this a firm date on the hood change? Does that mean that it predated the script logo brakes by a year or two?
<snip> Boy, the newer style campy bits are much more common on ebay for sure!
Just my speculation, but I think that in the last few years of SR production Campy was really cranking the stuff out. Obviously the older stuff is rare because it is older, but the really late (1985-1987) stuff seems unusually abundant. The stuff made up until right before that time (late block logo calipers, lever handles with "patent" stamping, date-stamped deraileurs, knobby shifters) is all far less common that the later counterpart.
Other possible reasons for the abundance of last-gen Campy (other than large production volume).
1) That was what was sitting on the shelves at the distributors when people stopped buying it and switched to Shimano 7400 and C-Record.
2) That is what was mounted on everyones bike, before they took it off to mount 7400 or C-record.
Correllary to 2) In the late 80's/early 90's, SR brake levers and SL pedals were abuntant and cheap because so many people replaced these parts with aero levers and Look pedals. Where are those hoods now?
<snip> So there you go, I've got to change the levers on my '80 colnago now!!! (got any for sale?)
I may have a set of bumpy levers, levers only, no hardware. I think your current hardware is correct. I'll look tonight.
Tom Dalton
Bethlehem, PA
Grant McLean Toronto.Ca
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