Re: [CR]Fw: Bicycle History Revisionism at work

(Example: Events:BVVW)

In-Reply-To: <7D1A6FCEF2264883BDA7F56702CEC61B@ToshibaLaptop>
References: <7D1A6FCEF2264883BDA7F56702CEC61B@ToshibaLaptop>
Date: Mon, 3 Nov 2008 09:00:22 -0700
To: "Steven Maasland" <themaaslands@comcast.net>, "CR" <Classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
From: "Jan Heine" <heine94@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [CR]Fw: Bicycle History Revisionism at work


At 11:01 AM -0500 11/3/08, Steven Maasland wrote:
>
>Another fanciful claim is that Tullio Campagnolo took inspiration of
>"cyclotouring derailleurs and came up with his Gran Sport". If you look
>at patent documents, you will see that Campagnolo bought an Italian
>patent for a derailleur and that "his" Gran Sport was little more than a
>modified version of this first "modern style" Italian derailleur for
>which he was the holder of the patent. It had absolutely nothing to do
>with Cyclotouring derailleurs as such.

Steven,

Thank you for weighing in on this discussion.

As discussed in the Vintage Bicycle Quarterly article on the Campagnolo Gran Sport derailleur, Tullio Campagnolo bought Ghiggini's patent in January 1951, more than a year after presenting the first prototype Gran Sport at the Milan trade show in 1949. (Vintage Bicycle Quarterly Vol. 2, No. 2, p. 8, quoted from Carnovalli's article in Bicisport March 1990.)

So people cannot claim that Campagnolo bought the patent and then developed the derailleur. It was the other way round.

When you look at the first Gran Sport prototype, it clearly is inspired by cyclotouring derailleurs. It does not use a return spring, but instead has two wires from the shift lever.

The Campagnolo was the first racing derailleur to find widespread acceptance that also ran the chain in a figure-8. Before, only cyclotouring derailleurs ran the chain in a figure-8 (like modern derailleurs do).

Racers at the time were very concerned with the friction of running the chain in a figure-8. That is why Campagnolo's Cambio Corsa was popular - it added no friction at all, because it did not touch the chain unless you shifted. Simplex and others had derailleurs that kept the chain running as straight as possible, too. You can read all about that in Berto's "The Dancing Chain."

In fact, the first Campagnolo Gran Sport prototype basically is a Nivex cyclotouring derailleur turned 90 degrees, so it could mount on the dropout instead of the chainstay. The story goes that Tullio Campagnolo bought two Nivex derailleurs at the Paris bike show in 1949.

The production version of the Gran Sport replaced one cable with a return spring, making it closer to racing derailleurs of the day. By the way, Ghiggini's patent shows a return spring... so it's unclear why Campagnolo would have started with a two-wire derailleur, if his Gran Sport was based on that patent.
>Continuing on, there is the claim that Campagnolo paid "Fausto Coppi
>millions of lire to switch from Simplex". While the number stated in
>Lira would seem to be extravagant, it should be pointed out that 2
>million 1950 lira would be the equivalent of about $30-40,000 2008
>dollars adjusted for cost of living.

I am sorry, I took that figure from the new Campagnolo book, which is a discredited source. So I take this one back. Do you have a reliable source for the amount Campagnolo paid Coppi? I knew that Simplex paid Campagnolo in the first place. I think that was mentioned recently in Bicycle Quarterly.
>Then you get to the oft-repeated but absolutely absurd comment that "the
>racers continued to ride cottered cranks, mostly because they offered a
>narrower tread (Q factor), for more than 20 years after Stronglight's
>cranks had proven themselves. See the archives for the discussion about
>why professional racers stuck to cottered cranks..." What careful
>reading of the archives will show is that there is apparently only an
>extremely small fringe contingent who claims this to be true. No
>widespread acceptance of this theory can be found anywhere, nor is there
>any commonly accepted logic to back this idea up either.

Look Steven, I really don't want to restart old arguments. So I'll just quote my post on this topic from the archives:

Under the title "Noticed at the French Championships," Rebour wrote in Le Cycliste 9/1950, p. 190 (reprinted from Le Cycle) on the new technology used by the French professional racers. His first paragraph reads as follows (translated from French):

"First, the number of aluminum cranks is growing (about 50%). At first, they were despised because they necessitated the use of a longer bottom bracket spindle, thus requiring racers to "pedal like a duck." However, racers have been forced to adopt aluminum cranks because they offer significant improvements in weight and rigidity. At the same time, aluminum cranks provide complete reliability, which has been proven in many events, including the Poly de Chanteloup [hillclimb race] with its 16 steep, out-of-the saddle climbs."

So in 1950, Rebour reported that French professionals finally were adopting aluminum cranks, after they had been resistant because the tread (Q factor) was larger. He also wrote that the strength of aluminum cranks was not in doubt. I have nothing to add to this.

Regarding other aluminum and/or cotterless cranks - no doubt they existed. But they came and went without much of an impact, at least as far as modern racing is concerned. The Stronglight came and stayed. Others copied the taper, and even today, you can fit a 1933 Stronglight onto a bottom bracket available new from Campagnolo or Shimano. So there is a direct line from a 2006 Campagnolo Record carbon crank to that 1933 Stronglight.

Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
140 Lakeside Ave #C
Seattle WA 98122
http://www.bikequarterly.com