Re: [CR] Spence Wolfe Bikes - Drink tthe Koolaid

Not getting into the Suntour slant parallelogram superiority, but my take on the Cupertino "Alpine" mod of the Campag. Record mech was to chain-wrap front triple or wide range double chainrings while still getting the crisp shifting of the Camp mech.

"Alpine" derailleurs were fitted by Spence Wolf beginning at least early 1960's. Latest I've seen was on a 75 NR model. Though my 75 Cupertino Singer was spec'd with a Shimano Crane.

John Siemsen Portland, Oregon

Message: 11 Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 08:02:09 -0800 From: Jerome & Elizabeth Moos <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net> Subject: Re: [CR] Spence Wolfe Bikes - Drink tthe Koolaid To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>, donald gillies <gillies@ece.ubc.ca> Message-ID: <902881.26292.qm@web82203.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Or the Shimano Crane GS. Schwinn used the half-ton Gran Tourismo RD on the 1970 touring Paramount, but by 1973 they had switched to the Crane GS on all the higher end touring models. AFAIK Campy never did recapture the Schwinn touring business even after introducing the excellent Rally. Spence's homebrews were probably superior to the Gran Trashmo, but not the Suntour, Shimano or Rally. Oddly, Campy retrogressed somewhat my making a later version of the Rally which was basically a commercialized version of Spence's homebrews - an NR body with a Rally cage.

Regards,

Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA