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The Attic -
Attic What IZIT
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 #53
 After throwing you a few easy What IZITs, we now have a true test of your Attic wisdom. Only a true attic aficionado will know the answer to What IZIT #53. The winning answer will include the Make, Model and Functionality of the item. Personal experience is worth big bonus points. The winner will receive a $10 Bikeman Gift Certificate.
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The first picture to back up an Attic What IZIT answer has been sent. Surprised nobody thought of this before but it just won Greg the prize. I have never seen a custom made, duct tape mud guard before...
WINNER - Greg Blanco: "This looks a lot like a mud cover for a roller-cam brake. I always wished I had something like this for my '87 Cannondale. Eventually, I was forced to fabricate one out of duct tape...and I have a photo that proves it...you can see it on the rear brake in the image to the right. Alas, this bike was stolen in western Mass. in 1990. Despite the fact that there is enough neon on this bike to make it clearly visible from the Space Shuttle, I never saw it again. If anyone has seen it kicking around New England, give me a call. I'd love to have those brakes back."
RUNNER UP - Chris Marenghi: "Submitted for our approval here are Suntour Rollercam brake covers. For all you kiddies who think MTB's always had 75" of travel, front/rear, hydro disc brakes and 137 speeds, back in the day the fossils amongst us rode rigid(yes, it's not a new fad) with 15 or less speeds. We stopped with Rollercam brakes mounted underneath the chainstay. These brakes were(and are) superior to any caliper brakes known to man being designed by none other than Charlie Cunningham. Their placement under the chainstay put them down in the muck and some felt the need to cover them to enhance performance. While I own a set of these covers(mine are made by JANDD) I never felt any diminshed performance from my WTB Speedmaster Rollercams, the design the Suntour brakes were licensed from and the covers sit, still in the original packaging, 20 years later. I don't care if I win, I want the message to be heard...Long Live Charlie C....Long Live Suntour...Long Live Rock and Roll(little touch of Blackmore's Rainbow thrown in there) Now give me my f@#$%&g prize!!!!!" ....You had it other than a picture of a duct tape mud guard... even though it is hard to see the guard in the picture.
RUNNER UP - Derek Wurth: "It's a Roller-Cam cover. It covered the wedge shaped cam and rollers on the old Suntour roller-cam brakes (licensed copies of the outstanding Cunningham designed WTB Roller cams). Roller -cams were my favorite brakes in the 80's, they were silky smooth and worked great with lots of leverage and modulation. The idea was to spread the brake arms with a wedge that had a curved face against rollers atop the arms, hence the name roller-cam.. Excellent performers when set up properly (patience required) but were susceptible to fouling by mud and dirt because the cam location above the tire acted as a mud scraper. Once loaded up with whatever you just rode through the brake became all but useless, either stuck open or locked clamping your rim, parking brake style. Suntour issued the roller-cam covers were in the hope of shielding thr roller-cam assembly from the constant mud packing. The covers were placed over the exposed face of the cam and rapped around the rollers and upper arm's of the brake, closing in the back with some Velcro. Since the brake cable entered through a hole at the top, the brakes had to partially disassembled for the covers to be installed. A logical idea that sort of worked but it just couldn't overcome the location and clogging issues inherent in the design and the marketing might of Shimano and it's boat anchor U brakes.
RUNNER UP - Telford Crisco: "That appears to be a cover for a Suntour XC/Sport Roller Cam brake circa 1986 or so. The cover was designed to fit over the top of the arms and cover the interface between the roller cam wheels and the "actuator" connected to the cable. The roller cam brakes worked pretty well. If the rollers got dirty they pretty much kept on working. However, if debries, mud, sticks, etc got stuck in there, the action got all mucked up. So the cover was designed to keep the foreign stuff out. I think we went from canti's to roller cams, to U-brakes, to canti's, to V-brakes, to discs, with Suntour's eventual demise in there someplace. It's pretty rare to find a set of Suntour roller cams, let alone the cover."
RUNNER UP - Geoff Yeo: "is that a mud cover for a suntour roller cam? If it is, i have no direct experience with the cover, but i do with the brake! Back in high school, I rode that brake on my friend's 1987 'sintesi' (made for supergo!) mountain bike (much to my demise, as i crashed and burned into this dry bush, requiring many stitches to patch up lacerations from the sharp-ass branches of said bush...). Great brake, bad under-the-chainstays placement... oh yeah, and if it's not a mud cover, nevermind!"
RUNNER UP - Harry: "Man, I think I'm really showing my age. That's a cam and roller cover for the Suntour version of the Roller Cam brake. My Ritchey Ascent had those brakes. They worked well (especially with those Scott brake shoes from the What IZIT #51), but they sure were mud magnets. The cover seemed like a good idea until you actually tried to mess with your brake. Who knows - maybe the covers worked well on the seatstay-mounted brakes, but it sure didn't last long on my chainstay-mounted brake!"
RUNNER UP - Dave Fritzke: "That would be a Suntour rollercam mud cover. I just got an old Peugeot ATB with chainstay mounted rollercams, so I may be needing that...... I remember the big recall of the rollercam plastic rollers, I think used on the XC Sport rollercams. Rollercams could exert enough force on lightweight rims to leave dents. And you had a choice of a couple of different "wedgies" to adjust width/leverage too. They were mud collectors though, hence the roller/wedge jacket you have there."
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