Marcus,
There are hundreds of things that have been cut into the side of seat lugs. On my "hellenic" design frame, I cut a heart, spade, club, and diamond out of the sides; two cutouts on either side. It's not anywhere near a new idea.
Seat stay attachments have no effect on the ride or performance of the bike. Therefore one can do any number of things. It's hard to do something too wrong; but ironically that is one of the most common places for a amature built frame to fail. I like to design the stay attachment in harmony with the concept of the entire bike. Some styles look better with various lug designs.
Case in point. Jamie Swan is making me some "double fluted" stay caps to fit double tapered seat stays for the bike I'm building for Wayne Bingham with the Kirk Pacenti "modified" lugs. Kirk will have some photos of my lug design in his gallery in a day or two. The bike will be at Le Cirque 2004 in it's completed form. This bike is a good example of what I consider artistic design throughout the entire machine. Everything is custom and everything is designed to compliment the other parts.
Brian Baylis La Mesa, CA
Brian Baylis
After looking at all those beautiful lugs, and the photos of the Dave Tesch with the bikini lugs, I have a question: Has anyone ever relieved the sides of the seat lug? I would think that with a fastback design where the seat stays attach to the binder bolt, there would be ample real estate for windows.
While I am on the subject (and because it's kind of quiet at work this morning) what are the merits, besides aesthetic , of the various methods of seat stay attachment?
These examples spring to mind: 1. Raleigh Pros where the stays come in low on the back of the seat tube 2. Italian bikes where the stays are fluted, and attach to the sides of the seat lug 3. French bikes where the stays are capped with a flat piece that wraps farther up the side of the lug 4. My old Tom Ritchey where the stays attached to the binder bolt 5. English bikes where the seat stays appeared to wrap up and over the seat lug 6. Cinellis with the bolt-nut-bolt attachment 7. Herons where the caps for the stays are cast as part of the lug 8. What about those Gianni Mottas with the narrow brake bridges? 9. Insert your favorite here
Happy holidays,
Marcus Helman
Huntington Woods, MI