robatsu

I thought turkey wings & aero levers lived in different, non-overlapping eras, like cavemen and dinosaurs, so I was a little surprised to see this on Craigslist:




ClassicFuji.com shows this as a 1986 Fuji Allegro, looks like the only model and year that this sort of thing occurred on any Fuji offerings. They show the brake as "Dia Compe 500NS with aero dual quick release levers".

Interesting.... I probably would have taken (and lost) a bet that something like this was ever offered by a major like Dia Compe....

Bikes and Jeeps

Very rare and valuable.
Buy it.

I never saw that before.

IthaDan 

I grabbed a pair of those at the coop to put on the girlfriends lotus while she [ideally] builds the confidence to eventually rode it confidently enough so I can jettison them.

I van grab pictures in the morn if you're curious.

Pretty sure exage aero levers had a turkey lever option.

Also picked up an old low level giant that had them.

roadrunner2012

You need to get out more.

robatsu

You could have a point there....

Bianchigirll 

Shipmano made a nice Exage level brakelever that could have a safety levers put on them. I have the brakelevers and want the 'wings'. I saw a complete set on the bay last year but $80 was a bit much.

roadrunner2012

They are not all that uncommon,

fuji86

I still have that 1986 Allegro, rode a metric century yesterday on it after finally having to replace the wheelset after 30+ years. The original rims are 27x1 1/8 and all I could find for a new 27" wheelset was 27x1 or 27x 1 1/4, choosing to go with 27x1 in the end. Anyways, the turkey levers are a nice feature when your riding position & hands aren't in the drops and taking a rolling break from the relatively aero position ride. I took mine off, but they could just as easily be reinstalled. Not the fastest bike, nor the slowest, it's more about comfort for longer rides in terms of time & distance. You know that the panic stop always happens when you least expect, from out of nowhere the threat is there or you simply took a momentary mental break. The reaction time is better with the turkey wings. You don't scramble to get back into the drops to brake & stop. There's a difference between slowing down and a panic stop for a situation that is an imminent collision, that oh sh*t moment, brace for impact.

dddd

I'd guess that turkey wing safety/auxiliary levers were popular from about 1968 to nearly 1990 on more casual-oriented models, while aero levers came into prominence in the moid-1980's, so there is a good couple of years of overlap there, even as aero levers would have arrived a bit later on those same more-casual models. I'm sure one could find numerous exceptions though.

I am forgetting now which came first on the 1960's Schwinns, the "turkey wing" brake levers or the "Twin-Stik" shift levers, but both rode through the bike boom years.

Erzulis Boat 

Those are awesome! I would rock those in an instant on my "don't care if it's stolen" weekend beer joint cruiser.

AlmostTrick

Why would you want to jettison them?

IthaDan 

Wow, 62 months later. Nice work email notifications.

Its tough to get back into the frame of mind from the time- three girlfriends, a wife and a child ago, but I'm pretty sure my thinking was that if she could get used to riding on the hoods, we could then transition to riding more modern bikes, like ones with integrated shifters, together.

IMO, 'Turkey wings' teach bad habits. They don't stop the bike very effectively, are rarely very solidly attached, two things I'd almost be ready to declare dangerous if I was sure saying so wouldn't start yet another BF holy war. Cross top levers, for aero levers are MUCH more effective, and where I've gone with my wife's bike.

Metacortex

Schwinn introduced the Single and Twin-Stik shifters in '67 and the "Dual-position" brake levers in '69.