Originally Posted by
juvela
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[MENTION=179053]ver[/MENTION]ktyg -
Chas.
Thank you so much for all of this great information!
Greatly appreciated here.
There are two items on the bicycle which make me wonder time-wise.
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First is the wheels; they appear too new for a ~fifty year old cycle.
Both Normandy Sport hubs have oval flange holes which I recall as coming in about 1969.
Would have guessed a 1968 cycle to be fitted with ones showing the round holes.
Normandy Sport large flange hubs had round holes until ~1965-66. The early versions didn't have removable dust shields.
Later ones had these removable dust shields .
Around 1966 Normandy Sport hubs switched from round to "kidney bean" shaped holes.
Originally Posted by
juvela
The wheel rims have smooth braking surfaces which is unusual for a french machine of this era.
It seems like nearly all manufacturers selected serrated braking surfaces whether they chose SAMIR SAMINOX or Rigida SUPERCHROMIX for steel rims.
These two features make me suspect wheels may be replacements; your thoughts?
BITD, we considered
ALL steel rims
JUNK! It wasn't worth replacing one of those rims because we could sell the customer a new wheel for less money and a new wheel with an alloy rim for just a few dollars more!
In fact ~1976-78 we were buying complete 700c wheels with Super Champion Mod 58 rims or the Milremo branded ones with stainless spokes and QR Atom small flange hubs for
$6.00 each!
We had Bertin fill up the extra space in the containers that they shipped bikes to us in with wheels so our shipping costs were nil!
Steel rims bent so easily that on most bikes that were ridden regularly BITD both wheels had usually been replaced.
Also the cheap spokes used on many wheels during the bike boom frequently broke while truing those wheels or on the first ride afterwards. Stomp on the pedals and: PING, PING, PING!
As I mentioned above, steel rims were such garbage that I rarely paid much attention to them but I do recall some with smooth sides on older French bikes. Also Japanese bikes usually had smooth sided rims, maybe Brit and Italian too.
All the patterns in the rim braking areas did was collect water to lubricate the brake pads in wet weather!!!
Originally Posted by
juvela
Second puzzle to me is the white Delrin shift levers.
I recall them as already discontinued by 1968 and thought that MICMO must have been using up old stock.
Were they still in production at this time?
European bike manufacturers didn't usually practice FIFO (First In - First Out) inventory management, especially during the bike boom era. Old stock was frequently used on later model bikes.
The French were very frugal - a centime saved was a croissant earned!
Those Delrin plastic levers were so fragile that they were frequently replaced so maybe they are old stock levers that some bike shop used???
Originally Posted by
juvela
Hope the new bar you have fitted has a 25.0mm centre as that is the size of the clamp on the cycle's PIVO handlebar stem.
"If it happens to be a 25.4mm size you would have had to prise open the stem's clamp, creating yet another stem failure risk."
NON! NON! NON! DON'T EVEN THINK OF SPREADING THE CLAMP ON ONE OF THOSE CHEAP SAND CAST PIVO STEMS!
This happened to me with a forge aluminum Cinelli stem that had been used on an undersized bar for almost 35 years. We were young and dumb back then and there was no one around to teach us any better - everything was trial and error!
When I went to spread the clamp, there was a musical ping as the front flew across my work bench!
DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME KIDS!
verktyg
