So the MAFAC half hood then dates from 1948 according to the Rebour article. My question would be the date of the Vittoria hood called the <<Tour de France "Bartali">> (Shown in the upper left of the Vittoria ad, just a ribbed tube to slide over lever body). Since Gino Bartali won the TdF in 1938 and 1948, it sounds to me like the <<Tour de France "Bartali">> hood would date from the '48 TdF then???
Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, Southern California
On Aug 14, 2006, at 12:34 PM, Jan Heine wrote:
> In Le Cycle 9/25/1948, Rebour mentioned under "The bike of Paris-
> Brest," that the Mafac rubber hoods used hopefully soon would be
> available to the general public.
>
> Don't know about any other makers. One problem is that rubber hoods
> perish, so if an old bike doesn't have them, it might just mean
> that the owner has cut them off when they went bad... rather than
> that there weren't any to begin with.
>
> The drawing of the Rene Herse bike that accompanied the above-
> mentioned article is at:
>
> http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com/
>
> (Note that Rebour apparently took the geometry measurements from a
> photo. Thus, they are approximate. All Herse randonneur bikes from
> the late 1940s/early 1950s that I have measured had fork rakes
> around 73 mm, head angles of 73 degrees and thus less geometric
> trail. They also had shallower seat angles than the 74 degrees
> Rebour quoted.)
>
> Jan Heine
> Editor/Publisher
> Vintage Bicycle Quarterly
> c/o Il Vecchio Bicycles
> 140 Lakeside Ave, Ste. C
> Seattle WA 98122
> http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com
>
>
>> Jan Heine wrote:
>>
>>> (snip)
>>> 6. No rubber handrests: At least in France, Mafac pioneered the
>>> rubber hand rests around 1949. Prototypes were used in the 1948
>>> Paris-Brest-Paris. Many bikes through the 1950s did not use them.
>>
>>
>>
>> Old post with some brake hood info:
>>
>> Archive-URL: http://search.bikelist.org/
>> Filename=classicrendezvous.10207.0559.eml
>> Date: Wed, 10 Jul 2002 09:59:29 -0700
>> From: Chuck Schmidt <chuckschmidt(AT)earthlink.net>
>> Subject: [CR]Brake Hoods in 1954
>>
>> The following ad from an April 1954 French magazine shows the
>> Vittoria
>> (Torino, Italy) line of brake hoods for many different brake
>> manufacturers. It looks to me like Vittoria had the patent on the
>> rubber hood. It also looks to me like rubber hoods were not in
>> existence before the 1930s. And not even that common until after
>> WWII?
>>
>> Here is the ad:
>> http://www.velo-retro.com/
>>
>> (I don't have the original ad just a photocopy so what you see on
>> your
>> monitors is about as good as the photocopy is. I can't quite read
>> all
>> the text.)
>>
>> Listed:
>> *Tour de France "Bartali" -- (Upper left) Just a ribbed tube to slide
>> over lever body. A very early rubber hood? Gino Bartali won the
>> TdF in
>> 1938 and 1948.
>> *Giro (Italy)
>> *Universal (Italy)
>> *Balilla (Italy)
>> *Constrictor (England)
>> *GB (England)
>> *Bowden (France)
>> *Weinmann (Switzerland)
>> *Gloria (Italy)
>> *Lam (France)
>> *Follis (France)
>> *Super Amortisseur -- (bottom, second from left) shown on a Gino
>> Bartali
>> lever with finger rest
>> *Amortisseur -- (bottom center) a small hood for lever body top that
>> predates (?) the early MAFAC of the same style. This might be
>> Vittoria's
>> first gum hood?
>>
>> Anyone on the list want to discuss or have additional info on
>> rubber hoods?
>>
>> Chuck Schmidt
>> South Pasadena, Southern California
>>
>> .