At 3:56 PM -0400 7/30/07, The Maaslands wrote:
>These two bolts, found
>on early Campagnolo Q/R, that I suppose resemble those seen in
>Frankenstein's neck, thread into the cone-shaped skewer lock nut.
>Between the tip of these bolts and the skewer rod there is a brass disk.
>When you snug down the bolts, these disks prevent the bolts from both
>damaging and making a solid lock on the skewer rod. You can therefore
>still turn the skewer lock nut.
Thank you for explaining. That makes more sense than screwing up the
threads of the skewer. So basically, the "D-ring" achieved the same
as the "Frankenstein" bolts, but was easier to make and did not risk
loosing the nuts...
>You can still adjust the width to make
>up for a 1 mm width difference in dropout thickness.
Why only 1 mm? If you can turn the cone-shaped skewer locknut, why
can't you turn it as far as you want, until it falls off the skewer?
>Beyond which it should be pointed out that to this day, there is
>no standard drop-out thickness, nor has there ever been one. I measured
>some of my bikes and simple differences in paint and chroming alone
>account for at least 10% variation in actual drop-out thicknesses, when
>comparing bikes that were built with 'identical' dropouts.
In Le Cycle August 4, 1951, p. 13, Daniel Rebour reported [translations by Jan]:
"Just last year, there still was reluctance to adopt quick releases: apart from the concern that the wheel would not be held securely enough, people were afraid that wheel changes would be very difficult. We have described in Number 16, page 9, how this problem was solved this year by standardizing the widths that needed to be closed."
In the previous issue (July 7, 1951, p. 9), to which he referred above, Rebour wrote on the equipment used in the Tour de France:
"Almost all racers used quick releases, made by Simplex, Huret, Campagnolo and Gnutti. The head of the French mechanics, Paul Delay, had standardized as much as possible the adjustment of the quick releases, based on a width of 12 mm. This represents two Simplex dropouts, each 6 mm thick. The right dropout already supports the derailleur without adding width [Jan's note: it had a built-in hanger]. He had to modify the bikes with Huret dropouts to a width of 4.5 mm, because this derailleur uses a separate hanger that is 3 mm thick, to arrive at 4.5 + 4.5 = 9 mm + 3 = 12 mm. However, because the bikes of Bobet had dropouts that were only 3 mm thick, they [attached? riveted? my copy is smudged and I can't read the word] a 1 mm thick washer to the left dropout to get to the desired value."
So it appears that dropout widths were not standardized everywhere, but just for the French teams in the Tour de France. It does make sense, though, if you want truly lightning wheel changes.
Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
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