Many of the members of this group have been enthusiasts for several decades. I got into it in the early 70's as the boom crested out at the coasts. Fads took a while to get to the midwest back then. Anyway in the early 70's attitudes still held firmly to the belief that braze ons weakened the frame. Cinelli, considered the best at the time, only allowed a brazed on chain stay boss. Everything else was clamps. Ditto with the ubiquitous Paramount, though some models had outer brake cable stops on the top tube. There were many others relying on clamps to mount components and accessories.
I don't recall if any one builder put it out but by around 1974 I noticed frame makers were adding one brazed on bottle mounts. In the US one was enough. There was a culture of criterium racing, which was often completed after 2 hours or so. One can get away with a single bottle on a 2-4 hour ride depending on the air temp.
It was the 1980's that made the second bottle mount common on racing bikes and three bottle mounts popular on touring bikes (remember the early to mid 80's touring bike boom? it happened about the same time mountain bikes got going, but touring bikes crashed after in 85 or so).
>From the racing side there were rarely significant levels of support to keep a racer hydrated. Anyone who could find helpers to hand up mussettes with water and food were considered either super organized or so good to have an entourage in support. Road racing (competitions lasting more than 4 hours) was pretty rare except for District and National Championships. Companies were experimenting with supplements. Does anyone remember E.R.G. (Electrolyte Replacement with Glucose)?, nasty taste but it worked far better than plain water. The secrets of the European race teams were tightly held and generally unavailable to the american based riders. The Euros knew a lot from trial and error. Ted Ernst has commented on the american learning curve in great detail. We're privileged to have him in our midsts. With short events and little support enthusiasts could get by with one bottle. I wonder what the attitudes were for those hearty souls who did the 200 mile events like
the Davis Double Century, the Grand Tour, The Hilly Hundred, TOSRV in the 60's and 70's before we knew what we know now.
The addition of second braze on mount was an indication of the changing of accepted values. Cycling had been steeped in tradition and the strongly held beliefs went away slowly.
Todd Teachout
Hercules, CA