>ONE LAST POINT THAT I HAVE MADE PREVIOUSLY, BUT THAT BEGS REPEATING, IT
>IS BAD FORM AND ILL-ADVISED TO BASE ANY SUPPOSITIONS REGARDING
>CAMPAGNOLO OR ANY NON-FRENCH COMPANY ON PURELY FRENCH SHOW INFORMATION
>OR SOURCES. ORIGINAL LANGUAGE SOURCES ARE INVARIABLY BETTER. IT IS ALSO
>BEST NOT TO RELY ON ONLY ONE SOURCE.
>
>Steven Maasland
>Moorestown, NJ
Indeed. That is why nobody made any suppositions, but instead posted one piece of evidence on this list, hoping to compare notes with other researchers. Unfortunately, it seems that nobody has any Italian information. If you have any, it would be nice if you could share it. The Raleigh catalogue you mentioned also seems to indicate that the parts were introduced for the 1974 model year.
The 1973 date stamp on the derailleur means the upper pivot of the derailleur was made in 1973. The derailleur may have been made in 1973 or later, and it may have been on sale in 1973 or later.
As far as French sources go, unfortunately, it seems that Italy did not have a technical magazine for the bicycle trade like Le Cycle. Neither did Germany, nor Great Britain. Certainly not the U.S.
You might not know that every year, Daniel Rebour visited the Milan (Italy), Cologne (Germany), Brussels (Belgium) and often even the British and Dutch shows and reported from them. So if Rebour reports something as new from the fall in 1973, you can be pretty sure that it has not been shown elsewhere much before, unless he forgot about it. (He may have reported it from the Paris show even though it was shown in Milan a few weeks earlier or later, but that doesn't make a big difference.) That does not mean that Campagnolo did not distribute prototypes through inofficial channels in Italy, but Le Cycle probably is the best source we have that indicates when components were introduced to the general public - because each magazine is dated. And with Rebour's drawings, usually you can see which model of a component he describes.
If anybody knows of another reliable source, especially a magazine, I'd love to know, as I do not want to make any suppositions not based on facts.
Rebour reports that he examined the "Superlight" chainrings, which he initially had reported (in an earlier issue) to be made from aluminum. He found that they were in fact made from titanium. I doubt he would have published that correction if he wasn't pretty sure of this, or at least was told this by Campagnolo! He also reported that titanium became black through "treatment," which was the cause for all the black parts.
The titanium pedal cages were mentioned several times, first with Merckx' hour record bike, which supposedly had titanium pedal cages. Does anybody know when the "SL" (steel spindle) or "Super Record" (ti spindle) pedals with aluminum cages became available?
Somehow, I had assumed they had been available by 1972, when Merckx set his record - the Campy timeline lists it in the 1971 Catalog # 16 supplement.
If this is the case, then it casts doubt on Rebour's report - after all, it makes little sense that they'd make special, heavier ti cages for Merckx' pedals (and the 1973 bike show in Paris), when lighter aluminum ones were available.
The ti headset was mentioned with Merckx' hour record bike again. That headset certainly was black, but I have no idea about the material used.
Which is why I asked whether anybody ever had seen the uncommon ti parts (beyond pedal and BB spindles and derailleur bolts). I certainly have not, but I am far from a Campy expert. -- Jan Heine, Seattle Editor/Publisher Vintage Bicycle Quarterly c/o Il Vecchio Bicycles 140 Lakeside Ave, Ste. C Seattle WA 98122 http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com