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Old 04-15-24, 04:28 PM
  #32  
bikingshearer 
Crawlin' up, flyin' down
 
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Democratic Peoples' Republic of Berkeley
Posts: 5,733

Bikes: 1967 Paramount; 1982-ish Ron Cooper; 1978 Eisentraut "A"; two mid-1960s Cinelli Speciale Corsas; and others in various stages of non-rideability.

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Probably this, a rear brake cable stop purpose-built by Universal for use of center-pull brakes on Cinellis. The single arm goes significantly further to the left that any other cable stop because Cino Cinelli (being Cino Cinelli) designed his frames with a seat post bolt that was significantly longer than anything anyone else used (expect for Windsor and other Cinelli copy-cats). Use this hanger on any other bike, and the cable will be off center to the right. Universal also made a hanger in this same basic design, but for use on all other frames - use that one on a Cinelli, and the cable will be off-center to the left. The Cinelli bolt is enough longer than everyone else's that it would challenging, perhaps impossible, for a hack like me to make it work. And because there is zero clearance between the bolt and the seat post, the hangers that dangle from the middle of the seat post bolt will not work.

So I found this one on eBay and paid an embarrassing amount of money for it. It doesn't even have an adjusting barrel because, of course, Universal included that in the brake lever, so who needs one at the cable stop? Anyone who wants the advantages of aero brake levers, that's who. Of course, Universal was not thinking of such things when the 61 center-pulls were au courant and neither was Cinelli.

But I think it looks cool and it makes for a mildly interesting story along with being another example of the quirkiness of Cino Cinelli, who thought racers should be on 26" wheels and using longer crank arms.


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