qclabrat

I was just reading the below excerpt from the GFNY vintage ride and wondered when aero brake hoods were introduced and popularized
Recall seeing them on most high-end bikes by the mid 80s

Also think if they want riders to go vintage, there should be limits to gearing

Max 12 spds with limits to size of largest cog,
what were the typical gearing for bikes in the late 70s to mid 80s?

GFNY not really so vintage IMO
Seems more like a beauty contest


Campagnolo GFNY Vintage presented by Selle San Marco is a new category at the 5th annual Campagnolo Gran Fondo New York on May 17, 2015. It allows you to experience the GFNY Championship on a classic road racing bike. As a Vintage Category rider you are riding a road bike that is from 1987 or earlier.

Bike Characteristics:
steel frame
down tube shifters
brake cables must pass outside and over the handlebars
toe clip pedals
32+ spoke wheels 20mm deep or less
Replicas are allowed. All vintage riders must wear the official GFNY 2015 race jersey and a modern helmet. A jury at the finish will choose the three best vintage bikes and award prizes from Selle San Marco.

Ex Pres 

My '86 Ironman had AGC levers, otherwise all Shimano 600, because the Shimano 600 lever was still non-aero. [EDIT: from below, it appears the 6300 AX were out earlier, but my bike came with the 6208 series indexed groupset]. If you look at the Trek brochures (vintage-trek.com), IIRC aeros started showing up on a few Treks (lower models first, interestingly enough) around 1984? But by '87, I'd guess aeros were across the board for this major American builder.

But someone made non-aero levers way back around the 50's (maybe it was earlier). I'm afraid I don't recall who or exactly when.

Many bikes had 7s rears prior to 87. My '84 Trek 760 can OE with a 12-21 7s rear. And limiting cog size? What do you have in mind? I can think of many bikes that came with 26 rear. I'm pretty sure even my '82 PX10 has a 26 as OE. So if a PX came with a 26, "lower" tiers certainly had larger.

But if you bring a bike that you feel better fits the spirit of the event than the guy next to you, does it really matter? Have fun. Hopefully the guy next to you will, too, and maybe he'll even be inspired to go deeper off the edge .

repechage

Campagnolo had an aero routing option lever before 1987. Not that popular as the routing and mechanical advantage were below what Dia Compe had to offer earlier, '85-'86. I would have adjusted the date to '84 or even '83 to preclude index and shimano I DuraAce 7400 as this is a Campafnolo sponsored event. Campagnolo was still dominant in the peloton then.

ThermionicScott 

7-speed freewheels were introduced (and were raced on) in the very late 1970s. It sounds like they've copied l'Eroica's rules for the most part.

Oh, to answer the question, don't most people point to the brake levers in Shimano's 600AX group as kicking off the aero brake lever trend?

repechage

At the same time or just prior was the Dura-Ace AX. As those brakes were just a bit too far in terms of weight and aesthetics, with progressive power that was not the easiest to modulate, those get bypassed as they just did not sell in high numbers.
In the 70's there were guys hot rodding Campagnolo levers for aero routing. The cable end was held at the point of where the cabe housing normally starts, the old cable anchor barrel was replaced with a cable sheave, and the cable routed through a new hole in the body and then through the bars. It was met with skepticism by the local racers. It looked cool though.
Another version was to have the housing exit out the bottom of the lever, the cable housing starting at where the cable end typically was, still had cables out in the air, but less and right in front of the frame for the most part.
There are always exceptions.

The Golden Boy 

ThermionicScott Wins.

Fatality.






Domination.

RiseAlways

Most info I've read suggests they came out in 1985-86.

ThermionicScott 

Good history, #repechage . I had missed that there was an AX version of Dura-Ace, too.

Reynolds 

No tubulars required?

davester

My totally stock 1986 Miyata 710 has Dia Compe 400 brakes with aero levers (bummer because I was thinking of lending it to my daughter do ride the California Eroica). All the Miyata bikes in the 1986 catalog that were running other brake brands had non-aero levers. The 1985 and earlier Miyata catalogs don't have any bikes with aero levers, including those running Dia Compe 400 brakes, so that is probably the cut off for Dia Compe.

On the other hand, Shimano 600 AX aero levers came out in 1981 according to Velo Base.

miamijim

1981 Huffy Aerowind.

dedhed

My '84 Raleigh Gran Prix has aero dia compes and the 83 catalog shows them

Citoyen du Monde

Here is a photo of one of my trikes with just such a routing from the left brake lever. The photo was taken in late 1982.

ragnar.jensen 

Modolo Kronos - 1980


Tri-color Harlequin by ragnar1984, on Flickr

--
Ragnar

old's'cool

crank_addict

Improvised PX10 ridden by Ferdinard Bracke circa 1962. And all you purist think its proper to route cables behind the bars

qclabrat

don't think the SAGs are ready for patching/replacing tubulars over a 100 miler, though it makes sense to me

qclabrat

not looking to squash the spirit, I love vintage rides

my point was to question why to limit cable routing but not cogs which I see as more significant

sounds like 7 spds should be allowed and perhaps only freewheels but not cassettes?

79pmooney

I'm OK with that. 28t like the old Reginas. I never had one, but 42-28 was the gear if you wanted to climb Mt. Washington in the mid 70s on your Campy equipped bike. I cobbled together a TA 28t single crankset and used a 13-21 FW. Didn't envy the Campy guys!

12 speeds. From the days when the bike community could do higher math (multiplication). 11 speeds. The modern cycling community is finally getting past counting on their fingers.

Ben

79pmooney

But on aero hoods. For me, they were the breakthrough I wanted for years. In my racing days, I always wanted to be able to put my hands over the hoods. On long solo training rides I used to think about having a surgical slot in my hands between my fingers to I could slide my hands there. So when I saw the aero hoods half a decade after my last race, it was like "this is it!"

Likewise the SunTour DT shifters that sat ona box above the DT. A shifter I couldn't hit with my knees! 42-13 on 15% walls got really old!

Ben

Italuminium

That's a crazy mix of visual styles but very, very cool. Chronos levers with harlequin wrap on delta brakes? Madness!