Post images of beauty (quote pics sparingly) - see Mod warnings in OP

They were gorge alright, but like you say 07Lapierre PITA to adjust. Just clipping the cable involved lots of curse words, often in Italian. They were real boat anchors weight wise too, but god yea, the sex.

Another earlier "aero" brake style again from Italy from the early 80's were the Modolo Kronos;

Very aero funky and futuristic looking. They wouldn't look wrong on the latest all carbon bike of today. Ditto with the levers. Like something off Darth Vaders bike. Very light too. Gorge and maaad money if you can find a set today NOS. Even ropey looking ones will set you back many hundreds. Only problem was they were the real death brakes. Bugger all stooping power. Think rubbing your gloved hand on the front tyre kinda thing. Microscopic pads. OH and the brake arms would snap on an alarmingly regular basis. :eek: You could actually see them shimmy and flex at slow speed use. For Italians so long as they looked good this would not be much of an issue.

I had a pair of these the only Japanese of this type I can recall;

Shimano Dura Ace AX from their early 80's foray into aerodynamics(that gruppo was the bomb). They started the hidden brake cables routing through the lever look*. Still have em and will be keeping and using them on my winter rebuild of my old steelie even though I'm updating everything else. Much much lighter than the deltas(and not far off modern kit), way easier to set up and pretty good brakes. Very progressive(you can still lock up wheels mind you). With new SR 11 brake levers/shifters that have longer travel than the original ones they should be grand. Their main downfall originally were the pads. Utter crap and smaller to fit into the holders. Now you can take something like kool stops and 5 mins with a Dremel and Bob's your mothers brother.

Those Campag strada rims were utterly bombproof. You could fall into the Grand Canyon and they'd come out true. Bitch to fit tyres mind you. You'd need thumbs like the Hulk to get them on. Tyre levers would just snap or bend uselessly. The again if you did puncture, no way would the tyre ever come off the rim.


*I remember people telling me that would never catch on and that it was even dangerous not having the cables coming out the top, in case your hand slipped.