Charlie Young wrote: <snip>
CY: I'm in the process of setting up my first Huret Allvit gear train. NMind you, it is not the first I've ridden a bike so equipped, just the first time assembling same. Are the friction cups on the shifters best run dry or with a light coating of grease or oil? They appear to have been dry when last in service.
CY: The RD is the more modern model with two detents for tensioning the spring for amount of takeup instead of the 1961 model four with four. While I expect that I can figure it out, which of the two provide the greatest amount of chainwrap?
HS: Chain wrap will be determined by chain length relative to cog sizes, chain stay length, etc. The detents just control the spring tension. I never found much difference, but I'm not an Allvit fan..
CY: Finally, are these components as wonderful as Frank Berto holds them to be in The Dancing Chain? Judging from their sparsity among photographs of vintage lightweights of the era on the web, they seem to have been the decidely poor cousins to the Campagnolo Gran Sport in the 1960's. As a second-tier frame (and inanimate object), my Rotrax Shirley is unlikely to care...
HS: I started working with the Allvit in '62 or so, and have always marveled at the industrial elegance and stupidity of the design. It's almost all sheet metal, so easy to produce by the gadzillions. BUT, I've never used a "modern" rd that was more finicky about the 4-5 and 5-4 (outer cogs) shifting. This was at the point of minimum tension of the spring that opposed cable movement, and where the maximum amount of sheet metal (virtually) rubbed against adjacent parts of the parallelogram. Formula for dirt to do its worst to shifting. I'd personally rather carry a spare Simplex Prestige than use an Allvit rear. Oddly, I got very fond of various iterations of the Allvit front.
harvey sachs
mcLean va.