View Single Post
Old 08-08-22, 11:53 PM
  #11  
bulgie 
blahblahblah chrome moly
 
bulgie's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Seattle
Posts: 1,994
Mentioned: 92 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1181 Post(s)
Liked 2,576 Times in 1,076 Posts
Originally Posted by JacobLee
I picked a very similar tandem up <snip> many of the same components, down to the aluminum canti hanger on the headset. Maybe bulgie would know something about this one?
The headset housing hanger is a different brand. Believe it or not, I can spot a couple subtle differences. The one on the Rod tandem was made by Angél Rodriguez, or I should say designed by him and made to his spec by some local manufacturer. When I first started there in '79, he showed me how he made his prototype by sawing up a Stronglight 93 crank that had been ruined somehow (stripped extractor threads I would guess). So I made one for myself the same way — here's a shot of it in progress, still some smoothing to be done:

The 1" hole for the steerer is where the extractor thread used to be. Good forged alloy!

Later, Angél got tired of all that sawing and had a batch of maybe 100 of them made, I think they were cast and then polished up to look nicer than the cast finish.

The one on JacobLee 's bike has some extra curves that aren't there in the Rod part, and a different surface finish.

One design feature of these, easy to miss if you're not thinking about it too much, is the way the cable just sort of skims the headset. The forward offset of the cable relative to the headset is kept to a minimum. That offset is what puts the bending load on the hanger, so minimizing the offset minimizes the bending load also, making it stiffer and lighter at the same time, a nice trick when you can pull it off!

Here's one I made, installed, showing the minimal offset. This one is actually not as short an offset as possible, because I made it so the adjusting barrel clears the headset. (It can have maybe 2 mm less offset if you only need the cable to clear.) I like a long adjusting barrel 'cuz I'm a lazy mechanic, this gets you all the way through the brake pad wear without having to readjust the cable down at the cable anchor pinchbolt.

Also I wanted room for the large locking ring, which makes it easier to lock/unlock the adjustment.
Yes I am totally nerding out on headset housing stops!

Mark B

Last edited by bulgie; 08-09-22 at 01:07 AM.
bulgie is offline  
Likes For bulgie: