A CR member sent me this photo of what appears to be an 80's Japanese brake caliper.
http://flickr.com/
The only marking visible in the photo is "SC", although perhaps it is mar ked Japan somewhere making him state it is Japanese. Though not real c lear in the photo, there are three caliper arms on this brake, with the bra ke shoe to the viewer's left attached to the middle one, which does not app ear to attach to the brake cable.
Never seen a Shimano like this, so I would guess it is probably made by Dia Compe. Sort of in the vein of the three pulley SunTour RD, I suppose. I would guess this was supposed to be the answer to dual pivot SP brakes. I'm guessing this brake was made in the early 80's near the end of the CR e ra, so dual pivots were not yet popular, but the Altenburger/ GB Symmetric had been around for at least a decade by then.
Can anyone identify this brake? I would speculate it is a mid-priced mod el because of the simple adjusting barrel (if original), the lack of QR and the apparent lack of anodizing. Granted the same was true of the Weinma nn 500, an excellent brake IMHO, but the 500 was designed a couple of decad es earlier, and by the early 80's a fancier brake was expected by high-end buyers. But perhaps this same design was available in a fancier high-end model.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA