No, no, no...not an explosion involving a Paris-Roubaix fork. A exploded assembly view for said fork!
BTI's 1995 catalog contains diagrams for just about every suspension fork on the market at the time, including the Paris-Roubaix. Back then, you could use the diagram to order replacement parts. Now, you can use the diagram to lament that fact that you can't order replacement parts.
Poor, unloved Gipiemme. One of a handful of unloved Italian component makers (along with Ofmega, Galli, Regina, and probably a few others), who just didn't have the appeal of Campagnolo. Was their stuff bad? Nah - some of it was sourced from other vendors, like Simplex, that made some parts that people love. In their zeal to set themselves apart, however, GPM managed to churn out some seriously ugly groups in the mid-to-late 80's.
Chronosprint Aero. Probably their high-end group, perhaps alongside WHITE LASER (queue laser sounds).
White Laser. I can only assume its named that because you want to burn out your retinas after seeing it, and a laser would make a fine tool with which to do that. Obviously an answer to Shimano's Sante group.
Any GPM fans out there?
Trade the violin for a nice bike, and I'll agree to that. I may not NEED anything else to be happy, but there are definitely a couple of items I really really WANT, that'll make me just a little happier. If you find yourself with any of the following items, and think you might want to sell or trade them, please let me know. Email address is in the about me box on the upper right!
Mavic 631/2 crank: Did you know there are two versions of the 631 crank? It's true! In 1994, the 631 was redesigned. It was relieved on the backside, to lighten it. The arms are boxier, and it'll take a smaller chainring in the outermost position. AWesomeness, and I can't find one! Whatever size, I am not a picky man.
1994 Campagnolo Ergopower shifters: Record OR Chorus. 1992 and 1993 brifters have metal bodies. 1994 is the year they switched to a plastic "carbon" body. The brake levers have no cutouts, and the area directly above the lever is screened 'CARBON' on the Records. Chorus have no marking. Yes, in this case, I am being stupidly picky.
Those are the two more difficult items. I'm always on the lookout for more 571 hubs or parts - can't have enough spare pawls, and I have a little project that requires some 36h shells...a silver Cinelli 101 stem in 100mm would also be nice, as would a nice set of Criterium bars. A single Mavic 451 brake, front or rear too!
Thanks for reading!
Post title is an Einstein quote. Pretty sharp guy! ;)
The last couple of years have seen some vendors slowly introducing shock-absorbing materials in to road bikes available to the public. It seems like quite often, these bikes are first seen in public during Paris-Roubaix. A big deal was made of Hincapie's 2005 soft tail Trek, even though that bike design never was made available to the public. Far more successful are some of the dampening technologies, like Specialized's Zertz inserts, which are available in all sorts of bikes in their lineup. Every article that mentions these bikes, without fail, mentions the widespread adoption of Rock Shox forks by riders in Paris-Roubaix in the early 90's, and how Museeuw used a full suspension Bianchi in 1994.
There were actually a few others that were tried as well. An interview for France 2, with Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle and Greg Lemond gave us some interesting glimpses at a full suspension rig they both used for at least part of PR in 1994.
According to the information in the bottome part of the article here, these bikes were built by Clark-Kent, in Denver CO out of Titanium. The recollections in the article are, unfortunately, a little flawed - Duclos-Lassalle finished first in 1992 and 1993, and came in 7th in 1994.
Duclos-Lassalle was off this bike, and on to a Excell tubed Lemond within the first 1/3 of the race that day. Why, we don't know. I think its fair to assume something as simple as a flat that early in the race wouldn't necessitate a bike change - and given that watching 1994 footage closely suggests he changed bikes again in the latter half of the race, to another Excell tubed frame, makes it unlikely whatever went wrong was easily fixed.
This scanned clipping over at the Mombat site gives a closeup of a Lemond that looks very similar to the one shown in the interview - it doesn't appear to be the same frame, but its probably fairly similar. Air/Oil shock? Or maybe the white thing in the picture above is some sort of elastomer?
Potential technical issues aside, looks like a very cool ride, and I'd certainly like to know where any of these ended up after the race.
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.
If you ever hear an urban legend about a kid who cut off his nose with garden shears, that is categorically true - I went to junior high with that kid. At the time I thought it was hilarious. Still sorta do...
And much like the garden shears kid, every once in a while something that people thought was an urban legend turns out to be true.
A month or so ago, I saw this on eBay:
It's a 571/2 hub...ED? I had previously seen hubs marked 571/2, and 571/2 HG - HG being, of course, hubs with Shimano's cassette splines, instead of the Mavic proprietary type. This particular hub has a serial indicating its from 1995.
Through a roundabout series of purchases and ultimately a trade with Harry, I ended up with the 571/2 ED. When I got it out of the box and took a look, though, I was dismayed to see the Mavic spline pattern on the cassette body.
It's worth noting that the Mavic proprietary cassette came in 2 flavors. With the 571 hub, the outermost cog was threaded, much like Shimano's Ultraglide (UG) cassette. With the 571/2, Mavic went to a lockring setup, like Hyperglide (HG). If you're ever looking for Mavic cassettes, be aware of the difference. The spline patterns are the same, however, so you can adapt a 571 cassette to work on a 571/2 if you can source a correct 8th cog and lockring
For a long time, I had believed that Mavic made an Exa Drive version of the 571/2. So once I saw the hub marked ED, I decided to consult my primary materials to see if it was true. Turns out, I couldn't find any evidence that it existed. Chuck Schmidt over at Velo-Retro sells a phenomenal collection of Mavic catalog reprints, and it wasn't in there. I checked magazines that had information about the 571/2. I read about ZMS. I read about Mektronic. They all mentioned that HG was available, but no mention of ED. Maybe the early Cosmic wheel set, that used the same cassette mechanism as the 571? No dice.
Moving right along. I thought I had captured my Moby Dick, but it turned out I had a normal Mavic splined 571/2 hub, with a weird ED marking on the model band. Facing facts, I came to the conclusion that I was wrong - no Exa Drive 571. Just what was this ED marking though? Electronic Drive, marking it as part of the Mektronic group? That didn't sit well with me, especially since Mektronic was designed to work with Shimano (and Mavic) cassette spacing.
So it stood. Until I spied something weird in an eBay listing from France.
The thing that piqued my curiosity was that, based on what I would see, the splines looked weird for Shimano. They had a trapezoidal quality to them, and based on wishful thinking, I counted 8 splines. Shimano HG has 9.
Sure enough, when I received it, my suspicions were proven correct. 8 splines, undercut a little. EXA DRIVE.
The Mavic sponsored GAN team sometimes rode an odd combination of components in 1993 and 1994. Mavic brakes, cranks, front derailleurs and wheels, with Ergopower brifters and a Record rear derailleur. Were they using the 571 or 571/2 rear hub when they rode that setup? There are a few ways to pull that off - respacing a Mavic or Shimano cassette being the easiest other than just using a Record rear hub. Is it possible they were using an Exa-Drive body like the one I now have?
I can't say for sure this is de facto evidence that Mavic produced an Exa-Drive 571/2 for the public, and marked it as a 571/2 ED - though I certainly think they did. But if anyone tells you that either the pruning shears story OR the existence of a Campagnolo body for the 571/2 is total bullshit, send them my way.
Ergopower was introduced by Campagnolo in 1992. For the 2 prior years, Campagnolo was without an answer to the rising popularity of Shimano's STI. The benefits of being able to shift without removing your hands from your bars were undeniable.
People always talk about how poorly Campagnolo was executing in the late 80's and early 90's. Ergopower helped bring them in to the modern era, and really helped them get out of the funk they were in.
Below is the Italian version of the 1992 Ergopower catalog. I've added the english catalog's text below each of the pages, so those of us who can't read italian can follow along.
The Bicycle Guide that provided last week's Mavic article also provided this gem:
Sach's New Success group was built from parts they sourced from various other companies - Modolo did the brakes for this group, and Campagnolo would later produce cranks, derailleurs and a Sachs model of Ergopower for them. Sachs provided the hubs for the group. Nice looking stuff, and something a little different.
This advertisement for the group from 1990 has something a little odd in it. Spot it yet?
In the upper right hand corner of the group picture is this beauty. A 6 speed freewheel + internally geared hub? Definitely a 'WTF' moment.
Anyone know if these actually existed? If you have any info, let me know!
1989 saw massive changes to the Mavic component lineup. Gone were the Campy knockoff cranks, old-style Modolo brakes, Simplex shifters and erector-set style derailleurs. In their place were the sleek lines of the 631 "starfish" crank, the crisp indexed shifting of the 840/841 derailleur and 821 shift levers, and the aero stylings of the 440 brake. Sticking around, for the time being, were the venerable 501 hubs and 860/862 front derailleurs. Not the lightest group around by any stretch, but solid, dependable, and like all things Mavic, rebuildable. It might not retain the quirky personality of earlier Mavic goods, but it still shows off the designed-to-last mentality Mavic was known for.
Here's what Bicycle Guide had to say about it in August of 1990. Enjoy!
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).
More 1993 Shimano catalog goodness. This is the 1 page on STI brifter technology, along with an overly confusing compatibility chart.
Harry, who's pretty much provided all the content I've had in the last 6 months, is selling this incredibly beautiful Cimatti over on eBay. It's a little outside of the timeframe I know anything about (about 35 years or so), but I know a good looking bike when I see it.
Old Campy dogbone style quickreleases! Too cool. If you're in the market for a 1940's Cambio Corsa bike, this one looks like it could be a real steal.
Shimano was a fountain of innovation in the 80's and 90's. Reliable indexed shifting in the mid-80's. Dual pivot brakes and STI brake/shifter levers in the early 90's. While their competitors were either putting themselves out of business, or stubbornly clinging to their inferior hardware, Shimano was establishing itself as the #1 player in the components market.
This post will be the first of several focusing on the Shimano 1993 catalog. I'll be starting off with the Dura Ace component pages, followed by some of the cross-line technology sheets, and the tools and small hardware pages. The catalog covers their entire MTB and road range, so if you're interested in the Ultegra 600 or 105 lines, speak up!
"Embracing our world...closer to nature, closer to people." Sorry Shimano, but thats a little creepy. On with the component pics!
Road components on a bike.
The Shimano Dura Ace road line. This represents the "correct" component combination for 1993 Dura Ace.
ST-7400 brifter. SL-7402 downtube shifters. SL-BS50 bar end shifters. RD-7402 rear derailleur.
FD-7403 B and F clamp-on and braze-on derailleurs. FC-7402 SG crank. BB-UN91 bottom bracket. PD-7410 SPD pedal. PD-7401 Look pedal. PD-7400 traditional pedal.
BR-7403 dual pivot brake, BL-7402 aero brake lever, FH-7403-R rear cassette hub, FH-7463 disc wheel hub.
HB-7400-F front hub, CS-7401 8s cassette, CN-7401 chain, HP-7400 headset, SP-7400A (round) and SP-7400B (aero) seat posts, HS-7400 stem.
The Shimano Dura Ace track line, 1993
HB-7600 hubs. SS-7600 sprockets. FC-7600 cranks. BB-7600 bottom bracket. HP-7600 headset.
