My 70's Follis(not yours Jerry) came with a Belleri came with a 6.5 mm alle n bolt. Had a hard time tightening that stem. I remember riding home with a loose handlebar from the middle of nowhere becuase the 7 would not fit and the 6mm was too loose to secure it. A 1/4" did not fit that well and I did not carry SAE on bike rides. Was it common to specify half mm sizes? I thi nk some cleat bolts are 2.5 mm. Brian Blum in Berkeley
Date: Tue, 03 Jan 2006 16:21:51 -0500 From: Harvey M Sachs <sachshm@cox.net> To: dcwilson3@yahoo.com, Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org> Subject: [CR]The Zen of 7 mm Hex Key stems Message-ID: <43BAEAEF.7070406@cox.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Precedence: list Reply-To: hsachs@alumni.rice.edu Message: 6
Don Wilson's search for a 7 mm. hex key took me back to a night in the early 60s. Rice U, Houston, we raced some, and decent bikes were coming to campus (but don't ask about decent students. :-) ). I remember the night we rassled with a Frejus or Legnano which had a 7 mm. stem. There was nothing we could find that night that would loosen it. I finally used a 6 or some near-equivalent SAE, wedging it with a screwdriver blade on one side, and we got it freed up.
But, my sense is that 7 mm was a pretty rare size even back then, or am I wrong? Does anyone know the purported advantages of the 7 over a 6? Yeah, the bolt is a bit lighter because of the bigger hex, but the wrench is heavier. Or was it just to be different?
Clearly, this is not a critical question in the evolution of the bike, but I bet there are some good yarns out there...
harvey sachs
mcLean va
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