Drillium Dude 

I've been wondering lately when the practice of pantographing began. There have been parts with the bike manufacturer's name engraved onto them (I'm thinking Legnano, Schwinn-Approved, stuff like that), but when did the aftermarket practice of engraving (mostly) alloy parts from, say, Campagnolo, with the framebuilder's name begin?

For that matter, it's been brought up a number of times in recent threads regarding Campagnolo and the way they put their brand on nearly every single piece of component hardware. On one brake caliper, for example, I counted 9 brandings (qr cam, barrel adjuster, brake pads and pad holders, serrated washers and of course the arms themselves). I imagine this was done to ensure a bike purchaser understood that the frame was built by one faction and the components by another. Any thoughts on this or the "dawn of pantographing"?

Of course, this thread would be useless without pics, so please share what you've got







DD

merziac

I think you are onto something with Schwinn, they seem to be one of the very first as they seem to have put their brand on everything they made and then on most of the parts they used said Schwinn approved once they relinquished full control.

Salamandrine 

WRT Campagnolo, for a very long time, most well equipped pro bike shops kept a case full of Campagnolo replacement parts. Pretty much all parts were available. If you crashed out your brakes, you could buy the parts you needed instead of a new brakeset. It made sense to put the trademark on all of the parts, especially since there were numerous campy clones out there. That way you were assured of getting the real thing, not a knockoff by Sugino or Ofmega or whoever.

Pantographing is a different process. It goes back to the 70s at least, but it peaked out in the mid to late 80s, to the best of my recollection. I mostly associate it with Italian bikes.

markwesti

IMG_0162 by mark westi, on Flickr

gugie 

Rarer than the Campagnolo tool box is the Campy parts drawer




Image stolen shameless from Bikeville thoughts: Excavated! Campagnolo parts cabinet

I worked in two different shops that had one of these. Whoever was repping Campagnolo would breadman it, refilling what was used up.

Fahrenheit531 

Raleigh, of course, was another master at putting their name on components. I brought home a late-70s Raleigh Sports and was amazed at how virtually every piece of the bike had 'Raleigh' (or just the 'R') on it in one form or another. Right down to the tubes.



I suppose silkscreen on a tube isn't, strictly speaking, what the OP was discussing. But it's a good example of just how far the practice of rebranding would go. And whatever else may be true, I had a pretty good idea which parts were original to the bike and which weren't.

T-Mar

I consider pantographing to be aftermarket milling of components, as opposed to the logos or symbols being engraved, stamped or cast in place by the component manufacturer. In that context, the earliest example of pantographing that I saw was the chainring on the Colnago for Merckx's hour record bicycle. The year after that, Colnago seemed to be pantographing just about every component and others soon followed

Edit: Regarding Campagnolo's branding of individual parts of a component, it is typically used to declare ownership of a patented design. If you look at things like the serrated washer, cam release, pad holders and barrel adjuster on their calipers, you'll also see "PATENT" or "BREV" to indicate that the particular feature is a patented design. This both discourages clones and sets precedence in a legal dispute. (during the patent term).