This has been posted some time ago.
You all should know except for some of the newer members still unexposed to
the "in" info that many of the old builders used whatever fittings they had
available, people who RODE the bikes and didn't hang them on the wall didn't
really give a damn just so they had the correct design and did what they
were supposed to do.
Ride well and get them to the line. Maybe a few wanted holes for brakes ,
probably more an English thing .
The Continent always had handbrakes for the road and didn't really use track
bikes on the road, regardless of the dropout configuration.
I don't think that the importers in the US considered track bike use with
brake holes for the road.
Some crowns could be drilled, some not because of shape/design.
So please quit worrying about it.
If it looks original fine, you got whachu got.
If it was done after purchase look upon it as patina as it was used and
consider it as having more panache.
Enjoy it's real history. Put the brakes on your hyperventilating.
Like Sarah says, "Ride your friggin' bike".
For the record, when we rode our track bikes in races and training, we
didn't even consider a brake.
Brake? We had one. It was called your glove. Everyone wore one or two for
stopping.
Ted Ernst
Palos Verdes Estates
CA USA
>
> I am quite sure Sieber did the drilling in many/most of these cases...
>
> Just my 2 cents but I think it depended on the market, the style of riding
> in that market, the potential buyers.. In the UK and eastern USA it looks
> like the demand was for "Path" bikes which had multiple personalities,
> track racers, non derailleur roads racers, in other words multi purpose
> ID. Out west in an apparently more tighlty focused trackie environment
> (maybe other areas as well) it looks like Pur Sang velodrome racing was
> the main push and demand. These bike makers were not big General Motors
> companies; Sieber would make bikes to order & to suit clients.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Dale Brown
> Greensboro, North Carolina? USA
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: walljet01@netzero.com <walljet01@netzero.com>
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Cc: ealbert01@gmail.com; oroboyz@aol.com; markfulton5@mac.com;
> sadiejane9@hotmail.com; johnb@oxford.net
> Sent: Fri, 6 Feb 2009 3:38 pm
> Subject: 1948 Sieber Track Bike
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Now we have gotten some good input from people that have actually raced
> these bikes and others that have them, drilled and not drilled.?What I
> would like to know is what is the?most likely?guess as to who was doing
> the drilling: Seiber, John Eisenmann (importer) or the local bike shop? It
> seems to me that there are too many that are drilled which seems unlikely
> considering the fact that track riders considered it heresy to drill. So
> maybe they came from the plant that way. I have no idea, but since it has
> come up, I'd like to know.? Eddie, feel free to jump in.
>
>
> Jerry Jeter, Wildwood, MO USA?