1) I have two Campagnolo medium flange front hubs that I would like to identify. They have a one-piece alloy body with the winged wheel logo in the middle. The flanges which are approximately 58 mm from spoke to opposing spoke hole are almost slab-sided with no bulbous form at the axle that seems most common to the Record and Nuovo Tipo hubs. The flanges also have one 7 mm round hole for every two spoke holes. The hub weighs less than the Record hubs and are a lower level model (not as high a quality a finish of the alloy, it scratches eaasily). The lock nuts on the two that I have are 1963 and 1965. Is this simply an early iteration of a Nuovo Tipo or is this a completely different model? 2) I also have a set of Campagnolo Record hubs that do not have the marking 'Record' on the hub shell, from the archives I am led to believe this means that they are pre-1963. The front hub however has 1963 locknuts, does this mean that they likely made the change mid-year? Has anybody else with these no-Record hubs checked out the locknuts to verify the 1963 cut-off date? 3) I have a number of Campagnolo Gran Sport hubs from the 40's-60's. There are apparently a number of changes that took place over this period, has anybody attempted to catalogize the changes that occurred? Perhaps somebody is aware of one of the Japanese collectors who has already looked into this. The changes include such things like the Campagnolo winged wheel logo on the chromed steel shell body having or not having spokes in it; the outside of the flanges having or not the bulbous shape; the different locknut shapes; the different material used for the locknuts, ...? Perhaps we could begin to catalogize this information. 4) For the Campagnolo Q/R skewer levers, I am aware of there being quite a few variations. The first ones from the 30's were with a cylindrical shaped lever with cross-hatch markings. The second one was made from the late 30's until early 40's. The cylindrical lever became somewhat flatter becoming a bit more ovaloid. On one side there were cross-hatching with the depiction of a spoked wheel and on the other side, the same spoked wheel and the inscription: PATENT.CAMPAGNOLO VICENZA-ITALY * on two lines. Then there was a third version that lasted well into the late 50's is the infamous open C version. The lever was flatter yet and now had writing on both sides and had the inscription: VICENZA PATENT CAMPAGNOLO ITALY on three lines. This lasted until the end of the 50s when it became the closed C version. Somewhere along the way, the cam of the lever passed from 7 mm to 7 ½ mm. Can anybody date this changeover? What about the cam housing cover, what changes in shape and markings occurred and when? 5) What about the Q/R fixing nut? The first ones were cone shaped with Frankenbolts that were perpendicular to the cone surface. Then in the late 30s they switched to Frankenbolts that were perpendicular to the Q/R axle. My guess is that this change took place at the same time as the change in the lever shape, can anybody comment? Then there was the advent of the C-ring to replace the Frankenbolts. As best as I can tell this change first took place on the one lever derailleur prior to it being rebaptized as Paris-Roubaix in 1951. All Paris-Roubaix gears that I have seen that are marked Paris-Roubaix also came with the C-rings whereas a few of the unbranded derailleurs (pre-1951) still had the Frankenbolts. I a few period catalogs it appears that the Cambio corsa levers maintained the frankenbolts for slightly longer than the Paris-Roubaix model, perhaps as a way to differentiate between the top of the line and the lower models? Any contributions are welcome and I will try to build some kind of database.
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Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ