> Hilary, et al:
>
> Please, for us on this side of the water, what does "Flying Gate" mean?
>
Probably means "Re-inventing the wheel"
Although I have to say that particular one that Hilary is offering for sale appears in excellent condition and has a lot of originality and period "charm", the whole concept of the "gate" surely has to be flawed - It sort of goes back to the argument (sorry discussion) over what these small builders thought they could do to re-invent the classic frame shape - something that continues today surely with the likes of composite seat stays ?
Viewing it without the rose-tinted glasses, it has no obvious appeal to me personally when to all intents it looks like they just cut out the seat tube, pivoted it to the vertical, and added in an additional set of seat stay's, lengthening the wheelbase in the process and adding weight.
I'm not sure why some of these designs never took off, perhaps because they were so different and appeared to most folks as just "novelty" frames, or perhaps because they just didn't work or were not properly engineered. I may be wrong, but the cynic in me only sees the work of a mediocre framebuilder who was either struggling against the competition to sell his conventional frames on quality and standards alone, or he was just trying to bluff his way to success, with pseudo-science.......
Bob Reid
Stonehaven
Scotland.