What with dale complaining that only about forty of the seventeen hundred CR members post regularly, it is perhaps a good idea to harp in again, starting with the best wishes for the new year, fun and above all safe cycling, which is right what I´m on about.
Preparing my bikes for the next season I had two nasty shocks over the last couple of days. To begin with I found that a pair of plastic, bonded pad Aztec brake shoes had un-bonded, leaving me with a funny noise when adjusting the brakes which made me look, and then my hair stand on end, when one of the pads fell straight off after I had taken the wheel out. It´s the ones with the yellow wear indicator thingies. I had these in Mafac Racers, maybe some of you have, too, so while this doesn´t sound on-topic, it is.
And now to Robbie: I thought it was time to replace some old, ex-white Dia Compe gum hoods on a pair of NR brake levers with these wonderful hoods of Robbie´s. Always keeping a pair or two of them in my Campag drawer (as any discerning CR member should, for sure), I took to work. The second Dia Compe hood off, I found that the former owner of the bike had _glued_ a piece of the grey lever body back after it had broken off, leaving the crack visible, to give a nice look-through effect with the glue. Good grief. I know that NR brakes weren´t supposed to stop the bike, but a brake lever breaking in two during a ride is overstating the point. So a big THANK YOU, ROBBIE, because I probably wouldn´t have bothered if it hadn´t been for his hoods.
I´m now one grey NR brake lever body short of a pair - has anyone got a lever I could source the body from, perhaps? No clamp, no worm screw needed, just the body, preferably an unglued specimen.
Thanks, and kind regards, Toni Theilmeier, Belm, Germany.
P.S.: Still on analog dial up internet, so PLEASE no pictures. Thanks.