Martin Needleman wrote:
>
> I've been told that Universal brakes have model numbers corresponding to
> the year of introduction. Unfortunately, mine are aluminum side pulls
> labeled "Universal Extra" on the right arm and "BREV. 453849" on the
> left.
>
> Where do these fit in the Universal hierarchy and when were they
> introduced?
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A little history of Universal (Italy) brakes:
The Universal mod.39 (1939) had aluminum side-pull calipers w/o Quick Release mechanism and aluminum levers w/o rubber hoods and with QR in the form of a slot that the adjuster could be pulled out of the lever body to remove the wheel.
The Universal mod.50 Extra (1950) had aluminum side-pull calipers with QR mechanism "Extra" and aluminum levers with 1/2 rubber hoods.
The Universal mod.51 Extra (1951) had the same aluminum side-pull calipers with QR mechanism "Extra" as the mod. 50 and new aluminum levers with full rubber hoods.
The Universal mod.61 (1961) had aluminum center-pull calipers with QR mechanism in the cable stops and the same aluminum levers with full rubber hoods as the mod.51. It was a response to the M.A.F.A.C. center-pull that was extremely popular in the 1960s. There was also a Balilla mod. 61 side-pull too, interestingly.
The Universal Super 68 (1968) side-pull was just a renaming of the 1951 mod.51 Extra with shorter reach calipers and slightly different brake levers (they lost the uniquely Universal signature triangular points at the end of the levers. The mod.Super 68 was just a defensive response to Campagnolo's introduction of their uncommonly refined Record side-pull brake in 1968.
Universal's QR design (the "Extra" in the designation) dated to 1951.
The workmanship and quality of Universal brakes was uniformly poor until the CX sidepull of the 1980s but nobody was buying them by then. The Weinmann (Swiss) side-pull from the early 50s for example had much nicer workmanship and quality.
Chuck Schmidt SoPas, SoCal ===========================================================================
Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, CA
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