In a message dated 10/29/2005 9:33:05 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, Sheldon writes:
There was a period when braze-ons in general fell out of favour, generally the late '70s early '80s if memory serves. When braze-ons came back into fashion after this, that is when the top of top tube style came in.
Earlier than that I believe, Sheldon. By the best recollection of my tired memory cells, the 60's was the heyday of the "don't mess with the frame tubes" school of frame building, at least for Italian lightweights. At that time, one rarely saw anything at all brazed on the frame, with the exception of the derailleur cable stop on the chain stay, and in the early 60's even that was a clamp-on with some builders. But in the 70's, bits began to appear one by one... first, the top of the BB cable guides in the early 70's, then the bottle bosses in the early to mid 70's, top of the top tube cable guides in the mid to late 70's, shift lever bosses in the late 70's, under-bb cable routing in the early to mid 80's.
Bob Hovey
Columbus, GA