Was working at on this bike at the co-op today, I noticed that there’s spoke holders on the chain stays. I’ve heard of these before but never seen them in real life. I decided to replace the corroded old galvanized with some correct length nice new ones.
by 1994univega
5 Comments
I’ve seen this but it’s rare these days
Nice. Old school wild.
Surly LHT still uses these. Touring bikes of old did, too. Cool find.
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen them on the drive side before.
These started with touring bikes, notably on Bruce Gordon’s bikes, then were adopted during the MTB boom in the mid ’80s by Univega, Diamondback and a few other brands as a selling point on the higher end models. They were dual use: spare spokes and nipples, and a chain slap guard. In practice they made fun sounds when slapped but were unnecessary for mountain bikes and more expensive to include than a fabric guard or thick plastic sticker. New fancy touring bikes sometimes have them to this day.
I have these on my 2016 touring bike