I don't really think that Steve Maasland and I have a significant difference of opinion about 60s sidepulls. Engaging the rusty cerebral gears, what surprises me is the following: In Backwater Houston (back then), we didn't argue among ourselves about the respective virtues of different sidepulls. They were invisible, beneath notice. A sign of cheap bikes, if we had any image at all (after all, the Varsity had sidepulls, but the Continental had tubular fork and Weinmann centerpulls). Beer lubricated the conversations about the respective virtues of Mafac, Weinmann, and Universal ('61) centerpulls; it may have been 1970 before I saw a Universal '51 (in Providence, RI). So, my thinking was simple: if a "pure" 67/68 bike had come with sidepulls, they were either awful or unobtanium (GB? Altenburger Synchron?), and any self-respecting owner would have replaced them with Universals 68s as soon as they came out.
So, I apologize if I leaped to confusions or offended the literalists... :-)
harvey sachs mcLean va.
Harvey wrote:
>> I know of no sidepull of the era that would be more appropriate -- or work
>> better than the Universal 68s. The hoods rot quickly, but replacements are
>> available. A few years ago, when I measured leverage on older brake sets,
>> nothing had _less_ that the U-68s: a little lever movement moves the caliper a
>> long way, so it feels very firm.
>
>
Steve Maasland responded:
I always believed the mod.68 only came out in 1968, so they would actually be slightly too new if you want to be perfectly correct for a 1967 bike. They would work for a 1968 bike. If you want to stick with Universal, you could also use the last version of the mod.51 or the center pull mod.61.
--
Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ