Patent Searching

Patent searches are tons of fun. Here are a couple of patents I found that I wanted to share:

Online patent searches provide a wealth of information about the workings of some of our favorite equipment - as well as the innovations, successful and otherwise, that preceded them. The slight variations and changes that happened from patent submission to real world implementation (note the spring setup on the Syncro patent, for instance) are really cool. Even cooler are the abortive attempts - take for instance this patent from Campagnolo, which was issued around the same time - it seems to be a slip-proof shift lever where the hinged part sort of acts as a brake on the spring (???), the need for which was probably negated by their "success" with Syncro. WTF indeed.

The pictures are truly worth the thousands of words that comprise the patents. If you come across anything cool, leave it in a comment below.

The picture-linked patents above are for the Mavic 571 face-pawl cassette hub, the Campagnolo Delta Brake, the Campagnolo Syncro 1 shifter and the original Shimano STI shifters

1993's prices...

Ever wonder what the stuff you collect now cost back in the day? It's not too terribly difficult to find vendor catalog scans with a Google search, but finding catalogs from bike stores is a little harder.

Fortunately for us, Harry is a pack rat like no other, and gave me a 16 year old Colorado Cyclist catalog. Here are a couple of scans - 2 pages of Merckx bikes, and their Campagnolo Record, Suntour Superbe Pro, Shimano Dura Ace and Mavic component pages. I think its safe to say that the lamentation of "if I knew then what I know now, I would have bought 100 Mavic headsets" is bunk; very few of the items sell now for as much as they sold for then.

Campagnolo Record, Chorus, Athena, Veloce and Mavic


Shimano Dura Ace, Ultegra, 105 and Suntour Superbe


Merckx MX Leader and Century


Corsa Extra and Corsa

1993 Shimano Ultegra 600

A few of you left comments of dropped me emails indicating you'd like to see the Ultegra 600 portions of the '93 Shimano catalog. So here ya go.

Parts on a bike...

1993's complete 600 product line (except for the aero post...)

Brifters (ST-6400), shifters (SL-6401 and SL-BS64) and rear derailleur (RD-6401).

Front derailleurs (FD-6401), cranks (FC-6400), bottom bracket (BB-UN71), Look licensed (PD-6402) and aero clip pedals (PD-6400)

Brake calipers(BR-6403), levers (BL-6402), cassette hub (FH-6402) and front hub (HB-6400).

Cassette (CS-HG90), chain (CN-HG90), headset (HP-6400), seatposts (SP-6400) and stem (HS-6400).