gitaneusa.com Forum Index » Vintage Gitane » Mafac Brakes.... Dural Forge, Racer, Competition    View previous topic :: View next topic  Mafac Brakes.... Dural Forge, Racer, Competition   Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 10:01 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area The other day I was responding to a post someone started with questions about the differences in Mafac brakes but the Forum monster ate it. Here's my learned response to the ghost message: The Winter 2008 Edition of Bicycle Quarterly was devoted to brakes and provided a lot of answers to my Mafac questions. Mafac introduced their RACER model center pull brakes at the 1951 Paris bike show. Originally there wasn't any model name stamped into the calipers, just the MAFAC logo. A few years later Mafac started stamping the words "DURAL FORGE" into one side of the calipers along with the MAFAC logo. Mafac wanted to show that their calipers were made of forged Duralumin alloy rather than being cut out of aluminum plate or made of cast aluminum like some competitive makes. Duralumin , also called Dural, Duraluminium or Duraluminum was a trade name for one of the original hardenable aluminum alloys that contained small amounts of copper, manganese, and magnesium to increase the strength and hardness. In the late 60s (supposedly 1969) Mafac replaced the stamped in words DURAL FORGE with RACER. There must have been one heck of a lot of Mafac brakes in the pipeline because DURAL FORGE brakes were still showing up on new bikes into the early 70s. BTW, there was never a Dural FORGE model, they were always listed as Mafac RACER brakes. About 1970 Mafac brought out the COMPETITION model brakes with a shorter reach for use on sporting bikes without fender clearance. They also had a pull tab on the straddle cable that worked as a quick release. Sometime around 1974 or 75 Mafac produced their MAFAC "2000" model brakes. These were essentially COMPETITION brakes that were polished a little and then anodized. They were available in silver or gold anodized finish. Wheel guides were added under the brake blocks. These brakes were not very common and I've never seen them on any production Gitane. In 1975 or 76 Mafac introduced their 2nd generation COMPETITION and 2000 model brakes The calipers were identical but the 2000 brakes were available in silver or gold anodize. New style COMPETITION New 2000 By the late 70s, Mafac brakes were quickly disappearing from the Gitane component offering in favor of various makes of side pull brakes. The 1983 Gitane Tour de France and Super Corsa were listed in the catalog as having as having Mafac LSX side pull brakes but these changed to Modolo side pulls for 1984. Mafac made several styles of cantilever brakes that were used on Gitane tandem and touring model bikes. Also 3 rare center pull models, the TIGER, the RAID and the TOP 63 which were rarely if ever used on Gitanes. Mafac center pull brakes came in a wide variety of caliper reaches. Here's a list of a few of the reach dimensions: The DURAL FORGE and RACER model calipers were produced in 2-3 different quality levels. The lowest had dull cadmium or zinc plated steel parts while the best used highly polished chrome plated parts. One last thing, I've seen a lot of people describe the lettering on bike parts as being "engraved". Engraving is an expensive, time consuming operation where each individual character is cut into the part. Most lettering and logos are either stamped into components, sometimes using rotary stamps or the graphics and lettering can be in the forging dies or casting molds. Stopping IS everything... Chas. Last edited by verktyg on Fri Nov 06, 2009 12:42 am; edited 4 times in total   Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 11:28 pm Kinst VonSterga Joined: 26 May 2008 Posts: 153 Location: Hillsboro, Oregon USA I ended up finding a narrative of the different models, so I retracted the question .... though I'm glad you posted your copy as the information was much more thorough than what I originally read online. I have a mixed bag of different Mafac brake sets from different eras/vintages, so this helps align the right bicycle to the right Gitane frame(s). Thnx Chas! Last edited by Kinst VonSterga on Fri Nov 06, 2009 1:20 am; edited 1 time in total Ghost poster   Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 12:30 am verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area So you're the one! I hit the Submit button and got a message that the post I was responding to didn't exist! Notice, I use a lot of "weasel words" like maybe, perhaps, sometimes and so on... There are no absolutes in the bike world, that's what makes it interesting. Just when we think that we have all the information about a certain Gitane model, up pops a new picture that contradicts what's in our expert knowledge base. Chas.   Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 2:19 am Wisey Joined: 19 May 2009 Posts: 631 Location: Brisbane, Australia If there is a cycling related journal in existance that is better than Bicycle Quarterly (formerly known as Vintage Bicycle Quarterly), then it can only be the San Francisco AnnualVerktyg Journal of Bicycle Wisdom. Nice one Chas. _________________ Kind Regards, Wisey Delta Dreamin' Re: Mafac Brakes.... Dural Forge, Racer, Competition   Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 5:40 am sandranian Site Admin Joined: 27 Feb 2006 Posts: 2701 Location: Southern California verktyg wrote: Duralumin , also called Dural, Duraluminium or Duraluminum was a trade name for one of the original hardenable aluminum alloys that contained small amounts of copper, manganese, and magnesium to increase the strength and hardness. If my memory serves me, and it often does not, Duralumin was used to build the Hindenburg zeppelin. _________________ Stephan Andranian Costa Mesa, CA www.gitaneusa.com Re: Mafac Brakes.... Dural Forge, Racer, Competition   Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 10:37 am verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area sandranian wrote: verktyg wrote: Duralumin , also called Dural, Duraluminium or Duraluminum was a trade name for one of the original hardenable aluminum alloys that contained small amounts of copper, manganese, and magnesium to increase the strength and hardness. If my memory serves me, and it often does not, Duralumin was used to build the Hindenburg zeppelin. Precisely, it was developed in Germany and used in airships and aircraft during the early part of the last century. Aluminum alloy 2024 is the modern day equivalent of Dural. Pure Aluminum is a soft weak metal with very high corrosion resistance. It's mixed with small amounts of other metals to produce alloys, some of which are stronger than low strength steels (High strength aluminum alloys and very low strength steel alloys are not that commonly used on bikes). Because of Duralumin's tendency to corrode it's frequently painted or anodized. Most often, it's been replaced with more modern alloys (which are also anodized for cosmetics and corrosion resistance). Chas. Thanks Fellows !!!   Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 6:17 pm smilingroadrunner Joined: 10 Aug 2007 Posts: 278 Location: Salina, Ks. Thanks Chas for the post: info & photos for the chronology & evolution of the Mafac brakes. Where do these fit?? These are off of my Red '73 TdeF frame---just different stamping w/o the wheel guides---they look similiar to the '75 -'76 2nd generation competition described in your post. & P.S. Wisey, thanks for your post above, I got a nice chuckle this evening. Gawd, he is a great resource Thanks to all the folks who make this a great site. Stephan thanks for the teaser about the upcoming catalog additions. I Like Steel !!!! ___________________ C.A. Salina, Ks. The Blades are off to Manhattan Ks. for Pre - Game gig at 9-11am in "Cat-town" Bar-B-Que & Tailgate party area Saturday before the KSU-KU game Yes, that's me, the silver haired old fart bass trombone player on the left Late 60's Racer Style   Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2009 3:50 am overfedlonghairedgnome Joined: 18 Aug 2007 Posts: 64 Location: Antelope Valley, CA Chas As usual, an excellent summary. The bushings changed before the transition from the Dural Forge stamped Racer models to the "Racer" stamping, right. From the brass bushing to the red plastic. I know I've seen examples of red bushings in Dural Forged stamped Racers. Also, I've seen "Racer" stamped models on late 60/early 70 Peugeots. But I do not know if Gitane continued to use a remaining supply of Dural Forged models (with or without the red bushing) later into the 70's or when approximately they started using "Racer" stamped type. So I am asking what Racer type most likely appeared on U.S Gitanes in 1970-1971 timeframe? Thanks - Jim _________________ Jim The overfed long haired leaping gnome Re: Late 60's Racer Style   Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2009 9:03 am verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area overfedlonghairedgnome wrote: So I am asking what Racer type most likely appeared on U.S Gitanes in 1970-1971 timeframe? Yes... overfedlonghairedgnome wrote: The bushings changed before the transition from the Dural Forge stamped Racer models to the "Racer" stamping, right. From the brass bushing to the red plastic. I know I've seen examples of red bushings in Dural Forged stamped Racers. Also, I've seen "Racer" stamped models on late 60/early 70 Peugeots. But I do not know if Gitane continued to use a remaining supply of Dural Forged models (with or without the red bushing) later into the 70's or when approximately they started using "Racer" stamped type. I don't know??? I've read contradicting comments from a number of 'experts' on these subjects. I remember in the mid 1970s working on customer's bikes with Mafac brakes that had brass bushings which were 'frozen' from internal corrosion... (which was odd because it didn't rain that much in New Mexico). These were on bikes from the early 70s. We had to tear the calipers apart and polish the ID and OD bearing surfaces. I think that the factory grease turned hard in the brass bushings and they developed electrolytic corrosion. It would have been easier to just replace the calipers since Mafac brakes were so cheap! The calipers with red nylon bushings didn't seem to have the problem. While the brass bushing calipers were theoretically higher quality, we preferred working on the Mafac brakes with nylon bushings because they required less maintenance (actually we preferred working on Weinmann brakes because they were a whole lot less hassle)? One time one of the other mechanics showed us some RACER brakes he was working on that had red nylon washers on the outside and brass bushings inside. So it appears that Mafac RACER brakes came with 3 different styles of bushings: brass, brass with red nylon washers and solid red nylon bushings. The switch to nylon bushings probably came as the Bike Boom demand increased since they not only would be cheaper to make but also easier to assemble. As I mentioned in the first post, Mafac made calipers in several different quality levels. Back then we didn't pay too much attention to the differences because we worked on so many French bikes with Mafac brakes it was hard to see a pattern: we sold Gitane, Bertin, Liberia, Stella, Velo-Solex and other French bikes plus people brought in PuJoes and other makes for service (Motobecanes frequently had Weinmann brakes). Here's a parts breakdown showing RACER brakes with nylon bushings. This is another Mafac parts breakdown from 1979. Notice the COMPETITION brakes have brass bushings with nylon washers. Notice that the 2000 and COMPETITION models have ball end transverse (straddle) cables rather than the ones with a tab end for quick release. Maybe a concession to the CPSC? One last thing, later Mafac RACER calipers have red nylon showing behind the the caliper arm bolts. It's hard to say how many of these have brass bushings or red nylon bushings without disassembly. So this clears everything up, eh? (clear as mud) Is it wrong... or just French! Charlemagne Re: Thanks Fellows !!!   Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2009 7:44 pm verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area smilingroadrunner wrote: Thanks Chas for the post: info & photos for the chronology & evolution of the Mafac brakes. Where do these fit?? These are off of my Red '73 TdeF frame---just different stamping w/o the wheel guides---they look similiar to the '75 -'76 2nd generation competition described in your post. DOH! There needs to be an icon for head scratching. C.A. Those are the early 2nd generation COMPETITION brakes. I never ran across these 2nd Gen models until at least 1976? They're the short reach models and have the quick release style straddle cables. A previous owner probably mounted them on your 1973 TdF. Chas.   Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 1:59 pm Karloman Joined: 29 Jun 2009 Posts: 7 Location: Fontainebleau, FRANCE Merci Monsieur Chas ! I hope the images of this topic will remain viewable for a looong time. Does anybody know if it's possible to download pages of topics like this one ? _________________ MY BICYCLES   Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 1:45 am verktyg Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Posts: 2814 Location: SF Bay Area Karloman wrote: Does anybody know if it's possible to download pages of topics like this one ? You can copy into MS Word. Open a new MS Word document. Highlight the portion of the text before each pictures then right mouse click to copy. Paste it into the Word document. Right click on each picture to copy and then paste them into the Word document too. Charles Mafac Brakes.... 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