Seems the scans are too crude to read. I would like to see this story though.
I met Barry Harvey when he came to the Alpenrose track to race in some big meet around 1970. At this race he crashed and really got hurt, almost died in fact. I don't think he could race again after he recovered. He talked Teledyne into building frames using the skills learned from building aircraft parts. Some of the cast parts were done in Portland at Precision Cast Parts. Because the use of braze-ons was not very wide spread at the time, he decided to neck the tubing down so standard clamps on the front derailleur and shifter could be used. Kind of weird, but it worked. He also talked Shimano into making special rear brake cable clips, larger top tube diameter. These frames were made in L.A. by some very talented craftsmen. The welding was very nice. Not stiff enough in my opinion, but Ron Scarran (sp?) rode them to many victories in the period. They did however break, especially the fork. I talked with Barry after they quit making them. He defended the use of CP alloy for these frames, giving a poor argument after all the failures. I wish I had picked a new one up after they were out of vogue.
Another related story is about Pino Morroni. South of Portland abut 90 miles is Albany Oregon. This is where most of the work was done on advanced metal during WWII. It's called the exotic metal capital of the world, a lot of details of how to make titanium was done there. Pino was trying to make some light weight bike parts and got together with Cecil Beringer. Pino talked Bianchi into a project to make lugged titanium frames. Beringer figured out a way to braze ti, using special gold alloy in a vacuum furnace. The lugs were made from solid. Tubing was made in Albany, I can't remember the company name. For some reason I was visiting them and saw the tubing. Tapered stays and very nice, 3-2.5 alloy. Beringer was very closed about any details of how to braze these frames. I saw one bike made for the track. It was absolutely amazing, something like 12 lbs. Anyway, I know for sure this project cost big bucks. Anyone ever seen these bikes? Pino was one crazy guy, but really ahead of his time. He did a lot of parts on Eddy Merckx's hour record bike. The reason he came to Portland was he had a 17 year old woman racer (Kathy Ecroth) that he had the hots for. He gave her one of these Ti bikes.
Jim Merz Bainbridge Is. WA
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-admin@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-admin@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of Steve Kurt Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2002 10:29 AM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]Re: Teledyne Titan Questions...
> From: "Questor" <questor@cinci.rr.com>
>
> Where can I find out about any Teledyne history, such as when my frame
=
> was made?
>
> Also, where can I find pics of Teledyne frames and where can OEM or =
> repro decal sets be found?
...
> Thanks, Steve Neago
> Cincinnati, OH=20
Hi Steve,
Bicycle Guide did a nice article about the Teledyne Titan. I've
scanned
and posted it to my yahoo photos page:
http://photos.yahoo.com/
Steve Kurt
Peoria, IL