RE: [CR] Jack Taylor seat stay caps

(Example: Events:Cirque du Cyclisme)

From: "Mark Bulgier" <mark@bulgier.net>
To: "C.R. List" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: RE: [CR] Jack Taylor seat stay caps
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 23:51:25 -0800

Raoul Delmare wrote:
> Speaking of those large caps on the stays , I first became
> really aware of them when Raleigh released the first of the
> 753 frames .

I remember a top-end LeJeune in maybe '73 with caps like that. Very nicely made. Possibly made at a smaller contract shop rather than at the LeJeune factory, but definitely French.
> [Raleigh said] this style of seat stay cap was found to give
> them the maximum adhesion with the minimum heat .

That style, where the cap is not ground down flush with the seatstay after the cap is brazed on, doesn't use less heat per se, but it is more reliable in a production scenario. Or put differently, it takes more skill and care to make the ground-down cap style as strong and reliable. I've seen a number (10? 20?) of frames with ground-flush caps where the cap braze cracked at some point down the road. I've seen at least a couple Paramounts crack there, and a few Motobecane Le Champ /Grand Record / Grand Jubile.

I always ground them down flush on frames I built because I like that look better, but I have to admit, just brazing them and leaving them alone like the Taylor in question is an excellent way structurally.

Mark Bulgier
Seattle, Wa
USA