Jan Heine wrote:
> (cut)
> Most contemporary reports (including Rebour's) referred to a
> titanium headset, which surprised me. While it is true that aluminum
> wasn't quite established as a material for headsets, it seems like a
> logical choice. If Pino says it was aluminum, it probably was.
> (Contemporary reports also speak of Ti pedal cages, when they
> probably were standard aluminum cages, because the SL pedals were
> introduced sometime around 1971 according to Chuck's Campagnolo
> Timeline.)
The introduction date and when the pedals were first made would be more than a couple of years actually. Here's the note from the Timeline: "Typically the development of Campagnolo parts was carried out with the help of professional road and track riders on teams sponsored by Campagnolo. For this reason, Campagnolo parts were in use one or more years before they were ever offered for sale to the public. Campagnolo parts could appear in stores or on bikes before ever appearing in a catalog or, on the other hand, were not necessarily available at the time a catalog was issued. The catalogs were typically printed for the trade shows which occurred late in the year (the Milan bicycle trade show was held biannually, odd numbered years). Therefore dates established by a part's appearance in a catalog are, for the most part, approximate."
> One other issue: Many of these "special" items later became standard
> in the Campy SR group:
> - Aluminum headset cups
> - Ti BB spindle, hub axles
>
> One wonders whether Pino's and Colnago's work pointed the way, and
> Campagnolo either used the development work they had done, or simply
> took the idea and developed it further.
>
> Of course, the fact that aluminum pedal cages already were available
> indicates that Campagnolo was well on that road already.
For Tullio Campagnolo this would be substituting different materials for his existing designs. His steel headset and his aluminum headset have the same form and dimension. His steel bottom bracket and his titanium bottom bracket take the same form. It is doubtful that Tullio would need to be informed by Pino Moroni about the substitution of titanium for steel in his components. And Ernesto Colnago did not make components so it's doubtful if he would be telling Tullio how to make components either. Campagnolo used OMAS to manufacture the titanium parts for the Super Record group.
Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, Southern California
.