At 8:37 PM -0400 3/28/10, jay hartman wrote:
>That is interesting because I always thought those were the first style
>Herse brakes.
>See:
>
>http://www.blackbirdsf.org/herse/cantilevers_1st.html
>
>The pictures on the ebay bike don't really show them clearly.
>Were there actually two types of Herse brakes or only the cast alloy type?
>Who made the Speedy brakes?
The Speedy brakes were developed by Herse, but sold as Speedy, starting in 1938 - see the Bicycle Quarterly Special on brakes (Vol. 7, No. 2). Speedy brakes were available to all builders, and even appear to have been available after Herse developed his cast cantilever brakes in 1946. The Herse cantis were available only on Herse bikes, with a few rare exceptions. For example, for a few years, Camille Daudon, who was a friend of Herse, used Herse brakes on his bikes.
Speedy also was the name for the inexpensive straight-gauge (seamed?) tubing Reynolds sold only in France. I do recall seeing an ad that Dupuis, the French Reynolds distributor, also sold Speedy brakes, but don't quote me on that.
Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
2116 Western Ave.
Seattle WA 98121
http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com