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
All three of the 531 LeJeune Championnat du Mondes that I've owned had those type of seatstay caps, but they were a bit fancier in shape than Raleigh's. Very nice looking IMO too. They curve down to become parallel to the side of the stays at their bottom ends, and come to a point on both ends, whereas the Raleigh's are just a simple (yet elegant IMO) flat teardrop shape.
Another nice feature of the Raleigh-LeJeune etc. style of seatstay caps is that they are quite light compared to the plug-in style so favored by the Italians (used for ease of assembly and inclusion of logo, no doubt...).
I copied the look from my 753 Raleigh Team Pro on my entire Production run of framesets (OK, two, actually...) way back in the early 1980s .
Regards,
Greg Parker
A2 MI USA