C&V "Why's?"
 

Why...

...are some pre-1971 Paramount P-13 "road racers" equipped with 27" wheels?

...did Peugeot use so many different fork crowns on the PX-10?

...are nutted CLB-2 front brake calipers equipped with mounting posts too short to use on most nutted fork crowns?

...does a Dia-Compe New Gran Compe 450 front brake have the same exact problem as the CLB-2?

...are the same CLB-2 front brakes packaged with a domed washer that severely aggravates the problems mentioned above?

...did Nervex produce three different variants of their Nervex Pro fork crown, even though the differences are extremely minimal?

...does Campagnolo always miss out on making aftermarket hoods for their own products, whether past or current?

...are Shimano 7-speed brifters hardly ever spoken about, while their corresponding 8-speed cousins receive frequent attention?

...is it so hard to find a Guerciotti with frame details that correlate, era-wise, to its decal set?

...did the CPSC request that the already-smooth and rounded Nuovo Record quick releases be domed?



I'm in a philosophical mood this week.

-Kurt

Can you explain this? I thought 27" wheels were "state of the art" in that era. They were pretty standard, no?

For touring bikes of the era, I can see where 630's would make sense, but not on the racing model. This particularly befuddles me, for the early-mid 1960's Paramount P-12's (and I believe the P-13's of the era too) were equipped with a slightly lower brake bridge and fork blades so that 700C's and 27" wheels could be swapped with little difficulty.

By comparison, the P-13's following the mid-1960's (don't know the exact year of the geometry change, or whether all of the non-custom frames were affected) were fitted with longer fork blades and a higher brake bridge for additional clearance. This was fine, provided you didn't mount your 700C racing tubulars on it - the stock Weinmanns run short on brake reach with the 27"s, let alone the 700C's.

It is also impossible (without frame modification) to fit one of these frames with Campag NR sidepulls if the wheelset has been swapped out to 700C, though it is possible with 27"'s - IF your rear brake has a drop bolt. Once recessed brakes came on the market, dealers found a workaround by drilling the front fork for a recessed brake mount - this allowed a rear drop bolt to be used in front. IMO, a ridiculous solution to a problem that didn't exist until Schwinn changed the geometry with preference towards the 630mm rims.

-Kurt