 |  | | | |  | |  |  | Plastic in MAFAC brake levers |  | |  |  | |
 Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 6:42 am |
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| vanhelmont |
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| Joined: 11 Dec 2007 |
| Posts: 242 |
| Location: Florida |
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| My MAFAC Racer levers have black plastic around the pivot and for the adjustment mechanism. Does anybody know if it's the same stuff as the delrin in Simplex derailleurs? Are these levers safe to use? I broke the plastic parts in a Dia Compe lever once while squeezing the lever a bit hard just to make sure everything was in good shape. Better in the garage than on the road. The MAFAC plastic parts look more substantial than the Dia Compe part thsat failed. |
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| | | | | | | | | Plastic Brake Lever Parts | | | | | |
| Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:45 am |
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| verktyg |
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| Joined: 14 Jan 2007 |
| Posts: 2814 |
| Location: SF Bay Area |
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Mafac used plastic in their brake levers for many years. The first ones that I recall were the Guidonnet style levers used for French touring bikes. They had white plastic wrap around levers. They also used plastic lever handles on their Ville Forge levers for upright bars.
In the mid 70s Mafac introduced their standard drop bar brake levers with main part of the lever body made of plastic. They replaced the old style all metal levers that had the half rubber hoods.
Later they started using these plastic parts on their top of the line brake sets that had full rubber hoods covering the plastic body. The black portion of the levers in this picture were made of plastic:
I've never seen these fail other than the adjuster screws breaking from some kind of impact. I'm not sure what kind of Plastic Mafac used. It seemed a little harder than the DuPont Delrin (nylon) Simplex used in their dérailleurs.
Modolo and even Campy produced some models of brake levers with plastic bodies. They are probably safe as long as there are no cracks in the plastic.
Chas. |
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| | | | | | | | | Delrin | | | | | |
| Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 3:42 pm |
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| greyhundguy |
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| Joined: 09 Apr 2008 |
| Posts: 678 |
| Location: South-Central VIRGINIA |
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_________________
Dance like nobody is watching. |
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| | | | | | | | | I've been wrong for 35+ years!!! | | | | | |
| Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:09 pm |
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| verktyg |
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| Joined: 14 Jan 2007 |
| Posts: 2814 |
| Location: SF Bay Area |
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Jay,
Great link. I guess I've been wrong about Delrin being an improved form of nylon for the past 35 years. That's what I read somewhere years ago and I've seen it repeated in technical sources over the years. Not even close. They're completely different plastics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nylon
Chas.  |
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| | | | | | | | | Thanks | | | | | |
| Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 9:46 pm |
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| vanhelmont |
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| Joined: 11 Dec 2007 |
| Posts: 242 |
| Location: Florida |
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| It sounds like they are safe to use. They surely aren't delrin because the plastic doesn't seem slippery. My other bike has Campy levers with some plastic in them, which seem very solid. |
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| Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 4:37 am |
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| greyhundguy |
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| Joined: 09 Apr 2008 |
| Posts: 678 |
| Location: South-Central VIRGINIA |
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I got a pair of the Black Plastic housing levers as a bonus of sorts. I bought a Stem, bars and brake set to get the stem. Everything in Alloy was kinda beat up, but the plastic housings looked almost NEW. 30 (?) years of use...they must be sturdy.
I looked up the Delrin thinking it might be related to the "Rislan" that Ideale used for their 2000 series saddles.
Jay |
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Dance like nobody is watching. |
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