Does anyone know where Dale and I can obtain these Shimano oversized brake clips for out Teledyne Titans? Any help would be appreciated! I wonder if these were originally black plastic straps that would mount on the top tube... can anyone confirm?
Regards, Steve Neago
Cincinnati, OH
> The following email comments are from Jim Merz regarding my 9/02 questions
> to him on the history of Teledyne Titans...
>
> Regards, Steve Neago
> Cincinnati, OH
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jim Merz" <jimmerz@qwest.net>
> To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2002 2:35 PM
> Subject: FW: [CR]Re: Teledyne Titan Questions...
>
>
> > Seems the scans are too crude to read. I would like to see this story
> > though.
> >
> > I met Barry Harvey when he came to the Alpenrose track to race in some
> > big meet around 1970. At this race he crashed and really got hurt,
> > almost died in fact. I don't think he could race again after he
> > recovered. He talked Teledyne into building frames using the skills
> > learned from building aircraft parts. Some of the cast parts were done
> > in Portland at Precision Cast Parts. Because the use of braze-ons was
> > not very wide spread at the time, he decided to neck the tubing down so
> > standard clamps on the front derailleur and shifter could be used. Kind
> > of weird, but it worked. He also talked Shimano into making special rear
> > brake cable clips, larger top tube diameter. These frames were made in
> > L.A. by some very talented craftsmen. The welding was very nice. Not
> > stiff enough in my opinion, but Ron Scarran (sp?) rode them to many
> > victories in the period. They did however break, especially the fork. I
> > talked with Barry after they quit making them. He defended the use of CP
> > alloy for these frames, giving a poor argument after all the failures. I
> > wish I had picked a new one up after they were out of vogue.
> >
> > Another related story is about Pino Morroni. South of Portland abut 90
> > miles is Albany Oregon. This is where most of the work was done on
> > advanced metal during WWII. It's called the exotic metal capital of the
> > world, a lot of details of how to make titanium was done there. Pino was
> > trying to make some light weight bike parts and got together with Cecil
> > Beringer. Pino talked
> > Bianchi into a project to make lugged titanium frames. Beringer figured
> > out a way to braze ti, using special gold alloy in a vacuum furnace. The
> > lugs were made from solid. Tubing was made in Albany, I can't remember
> > the company name. For some reason I was visiting them and saw the
> > tubing. Tapered stays and very nice, 3-2.5 alloy. Beringer was very
> > closed about any details of how to braze these frames. I saw one bike
> > made for the track. It was absolutely amazing, something like 12 lbs.
> > Anyway, I know for sure this project cost big bucks. Anyone ever seen
> > these bikes? Pino was one crazy guy, but really ahead of his time. He
> > did a lot of parts on Eddy Merckx's hour record bike. The reason he came
> > to Portland was he had a 17 year old woman racer (Kathy Ecroth) that he
> > had the hots for. He gave her one of these Ti bikes.
> >
> > Jim Merz
> > Bainbridge Is. WA
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Jorgensen" <designzero@earthlink.net>
> To: <questor@cinci.rr.com>
> Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 11:33 AM
> Subject: Teledyne top tube clips
>
>
> > Steve-
> >
> > Teledyne had Shimano make oversize top tube clips (or Teledyne asked and
> > only Shimano answered) That is also why Teledynes came with Shimano Dura
> > Ace headsets and were featured with Shimano in the adverts. Only sold as
> > frames each shop built the bike up from scratch. Oh yes also came with
> > Shimano seatpost binder "bolt"
> >
> > John Jorgensen
> > Palos Verdes Ca.