1994 Merckx catalog pages

Courtesy of my friend Harry, here are the Merckx pages from the 1994 Gita catalog. There's only two, so read slowly!

The Century TSX is still available for the 1994 model year. The catalog says it comes with a flat fork crown, yet the catalog pictures clearly show one of the bikes with a sloping crown. Retail price: $1225.00

The Corsa's shown are in two replica color schemes, and both are sporting replica down tube lettering instead of the normal Merckx decals. Retail price: $925.



Oops, I cut off Lance's head in the scans. I believe thats a picture of him winning the CoreStates US Pro Championships. Whatever race its from, its prior to his winning the '93 worlds, based on his jersey.

The Titanal was new for 1994. Apparently, its a bonded Titanium frame. I've never actually seen one. Who actually produced these? What frame manufacturer in Austria was producing bonded frames in the mid-90's?

Finally, the MX-Leader. Retail price: $1421.00

Click any pic for a high res version. Enjoy!

Campagnolo's Century Finish

Sometime in late 80's or early 90's, Campagnolo introduced the "century" and "graphite" finishes to their product lines. Century was strictly for Record, and was a sort of smokey chrome. Graphite was available in the "lesser" component groups, and was a darker, opaque grey/black.

Graphite finish items show up relatively infrequently. Even less common are items in century finish, like these beauties that followed me home recently:



If you check out the Campagnolo catalogs, you won't see either finish pop up until the 1991 catalog. I have a hard time using catalogs as cannon in these situations - you'll also note that the last generation criss-cross style (often called the 5 pivot style) was available by then, and all delta's in the catalog sport black accordians and wheel guides.



Not so with my brakes. The Chorus cranks above have a '51' in a box for a date code, which I've been led to believe indicates 1989. Who knows when they really appeared? 1989? Possibly for the 1990 catalog year?

I guess I'm getting predictable

Just picked these up this weekend at a small local swap.

Sounds like my purchase was predicted by several parties. What can I say, I know what I like. These would have been spec'd with one of the later model Modolo brakes, similar to how a very similar style lever was paired with the Mavic 440.

If you like this blog, you should be on this list

A friend of mine just started a new mailing list, dedicated to the time frame I seem to keep coming back to on this blog - mid 80's to mid/late 90's. Check it out here:

http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/IndexThisstopat10/

Rumors of this blogs' demise...

have, in fact, been greatly exaggerated. This little creep just keeps sucking up all my time:

(I used the pattern available here to make the cap, and just scaled it down for baby sizing.)

More posts soon!

Yes, it really is that easy...

We Mavic fans often tout rebuildability as a major win over other options. Want to convert that clamp on front derailleur to a braze on? Just pop the circlips, press out the body, and pop a braze-on body on! Simple! Convert a rear derailleur from a short cage 840 to a medium cage 841? Pop a circlip, drive out a pin, replace the cage and there ya go!

Right. Maybe its simple once you've done it, or seen pictures of it being done. I recently picked up a set of 841 cages, and set about replacing the cages of an 840 with them. Here are pictures I took along the way.

On the left, we have a standard 840 short cage derailleur. On the right, the plates that make up the medium cage for the 841 derailleur. The only difference between the two are the cages.



Step one - remove the bolts holding on the pulleys and the back portion of the cage.



Step 2 - remove the circlip pointed to in the picture above. It'll pop off easily with a set of needle nose pliers.



Step 3 - drive the pin out. I use the handle of a screw driver to push it out. Try twisting the cage - at the stop position, the spring's 90 degree bend is in contact with the pin, and will make it hard to remove. Once you pivot the cage, it should be easy to push the pin out.



The hinge pin slides in the groove pointed to by the white arrow. It butts up against the tension spring pointed to by the red arrow. This keeps the cage from unspinning and losing tension, without any additional limit pin.

Replace the cage, lining up the spring. Press it inward, rotate it in place, and press the hinge pin back in. Replace the circlip, and you're done.



Now, what used to be an 840 short cage derailleur is now an 841 medium cage derailleur. Perfect to use with your 631 triple crank and 870 front derailleur. Total time elapsed, including pictures, was 13 minutes. Without documenting the process, it's easily a sub-10 minute procedure.

Mavic 451/Suntour Superbe Pro/Dia Compe BRS500 Instructions

As previously discussed, the Mavic 451 brake one was of many brakes that was a rebranded Dia Compe BRS500. Some consider them the pinnacle of single pivot design, combining excellent stopping power, precise modulation, and the clean lines that come with its hidden spring.

Those of us who've used them know they can be a serious pain in the butt to adjust. It's a little easier when you have three hands and the proper instructions

Here's a parts explosion, just in case you accidentally disassembled your brakes when you tried to adjust them.



If you've emailed to me asking how they hell to make your Mavic 451's work, I apologize for my rambling responses. Hopefully these instructions will make things a little easier. Enjoy!