To my beloved CR list. I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks for all t he efforts that were put into educating me about the history of 7 speed fre ewheels, I was mistaken (to put it mildly), but now consider myself much be tter informed on this subject. You guys really know your stuff.
I hope your all getting excited about the rides we will be doing this summe r.
Tom (I'm not riding a Fixie in SF) Harriman. San Francisco, CA
From: Stronglight49@aol.com Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:46:06 -0400 Subject: [CR] (OFF LIST) 7-speed...8-speed... To: transition202@hotmail.com
Tom,
FYI, ... I just uploaded this handy chart:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/
scanned from: "The Dancing Chain" Frank J. Berto, 2nd ed. (2005)
I have an 8-speed Dura-Ace hub, indexed shifters, 7402 rear derailleur, and freehub cassette all from 1989. The bike this was used on
shows in their catalogue that the frames were offered with either 126 rear
spacing for standard 7-speed... or also now 130 mm for the then "NEW!" 8-sp eed components.
I think probably "compact" 7-speed freewheels were actually appearing before 1980 as someone on the CR Maillist mentioned. So, the dates in the
chart would indicate when complete dedicated components to mesh with the va rious increasing freewheel / cassette cog sets were introduced by the various companies.
More interesting to me was the fact that 5-speed freewheels for standard 3/32" x 1/2" derailleur chains were introduced by Simplex - way back in 1936... and Brampton sold their first 3/32" chains that same year. The earliest ones were used mainly for touring bikes since early Macho racers had long shunned such new-fangled developments and considered the "narrow" chains too flimsy for racing applications. ~ How ironic that it is now the Pro Racer used prototypes which seem to trickle down into the marketplace the following year, these days.
As I recall, 6-speed freewheels were credited to Huret - in 1965... but I don't think I ever saw a 6-speed until the mid-1970s or later, and the firs t ones I recall were "compact" Maillard models, intended to fit (tightly) into standard 120 mm. 5-speed spacing [although realistically they really b egged for 122 mm. at least].
My REGINA catalog (dated 1977) shows full sized 6-speed freewheels, built for 126 mm spacing.
Cheers! Bob
BOB HANSON, ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, USA
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