Charlie Young wrote:
Folks: Recently picked up a Gitane Club Special track bike. <snip>
Front fork is undrilled and will stay that way but I'd like to hear if = anyone has a nondestructive means to fit a front brake for light = road/paved bike trail use without going the spare fork route.
Here's an ugly way, but servicable. I have not tried it, and would watch the thing carefully, so this is not an endorsement: Clamp cantilever studs to the blades. You need a couple of canti studs, of course, and someone who can do some brazing for you. To each, braze a short (ca. 1.5" strip of fork-guage sheet metal shaped like the front of your fork blades. Sacrifice an old fork? Radiator stainless clamps will attach these to the blades, damaging only the paint... I have actually used silver solder to attach cable stops to radiator clamps (to route cables on a C-dale tandem), and had it work well, but I would never weaken a screw clamp by heat for a mission-critical, vibrating application like the brake mounts. Hence the secondary plate, and two clamps. It would look ugly. REALLY ugly, but there were factory clamp-ons in the 50s, if I remember correctly.
Frankly, when I keep finding full chrome road forks for $15 or less at swap meets, and given that this was not a high-snoot bike to start with, I'd go the spare fork route, myself.
BTW, Charlie, enjoyed seeing you at Westminster, and hope the Simplex derailluers brighten your scene!
harvey sachs
mcLean VA