M.A.F.A.C. “Racer”

Manufacture Auvergnoise de Freins et Assessoires pour Cycle

Deze remhoeven zitten op de Batavus Televizier 1966, toch een tweetal uurtjes werk, het schoonmaken van deze remmen, 2 paar NOS mafac remblokken er op… ik ben tevreden met het resultaat !

Onderstaande tekst is terug te vinden op Classic Lightweights UK

MAFAC Racer – The classic centre-pull design

The adverting slogan was: ‘braking with one finger sufficient’

In 1952 the Racer centre-pull  was introduced.  The earliest reference I have found is in the CTC Gazette November 1952, their review of the Paris show. The advantages of these brakes were many:

a)  Quick release straddle cable giving easy wheel removal
b) Blocks were multi adjustable in both the vertical and horizontal plane. The could also be angled a great advantage when using a rim such as the Constrictor Asp whose braking surfaces were not parallel
c)  Wide drop (50 to 75mm) which could accommodate most frames (brakes were made in two depths achieved by varying the drop on the rear plate).
d)  As the length of the straddle cable could easily altered so could the mechanical advantage of the brake.
e) A consequence of the design of lever clamp was that the lever body could be removed without untaping the bars. A very useful feature if you wanted to swap the hood or tighten up the pivots (which can be done with a few taps of a hammer).
f) Easy to disassembly and service especially if using Mafac tools.

The only design weakness was the front brake hanger which was rather flexible and worked best wedged against the top headset race.  This was easy to do with headset such as the Stronglight P4, which had a wide circumference.

The profile of these brakes is very distinctive and even a cursory glance at photos of Tour riders in the 50’s and 60’s will reveal many to be stopping on Mafacs. I recall once buying a set of Mafacs and asking which model only to be told: ‘You know, the ones Anquetil won the Tour on’.

None of Mafac’s competitors, eg. GB, Weinmann and Universal, marketed centre pulls until the late 1950’s.

For the rear brake they made an alternative fitting in which the centre bolts fits vertically to the frame. This method was used by many French builders as it gave a neater way of fitting the rear mudguard (without the need for a bridge).

TA made a front bag support that fitted on via the Racer pivot bolts and under the fork crown. Some specialist French builders offered brazed on versions of these brakes using a cut down cantilever boss. This reduced flexing with the top end of the spring acting directly onto the frame instead of the back plate.

In the late 1960’s they acquired red plastic bushings and the stamping ‘dural forge’ was replaced by ‘Racer’.  I have seen Racers stamped ‘dural forge’ but with the red plastic bushings. This would seem to be a transitional version (late 60’s early 70’s) before they moved to stamping them ‘Racer’.  These were also made in black anodised versions in the 1970’s.  Final versions of the Racer do not have the model name on the stirrups and are merely stamped ‘Mafac’.  In the 1970’s a longer arm version was introduced, the ‘Raid’ (reach 60 to 85 mm).

Read all: http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk/components/mafac1-comp.html