[CR]re: eBay outig, 62cm Ritchey with faux lugs?!?

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To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
From: <marcus.e.helman@gm.com>
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 16:18:32 -0400
Subject: [CR]re: eBay outig, 62cm Ritchey with faux lugs?!?

Tom Adams wrote:

http://ebay.com/<blah>

ebay # 3678189477

Seen on ebay, this Ritchey bike. Aside from being an excellent looking, on topic bike by a prominent Amercian Builder, the seller (Filmschool, who I think is a list member) says that this frame is fillet brazed, then filed to look like it has lugs. Has anyone any background, reasoning or history of this style of tube joinery? I can't really tell from the pics how this work was accomplished.

Tom Adams, curious in Shrewsbury NJ

I had a Tom Ritchey bike that was very similar, also a 1980. Same built-up chainstay brace, same fastback seat cluster. I simply cannot believe that those were not real lugs. They were really thin, and very smooth, and I sometimes wondered if they had been filed down after brazing. Also, as I recall, the edges were thinner at the points of the lugs than on the front of the headtube. It does not make much sense to think that Ritchey would have cut extra deep on the front of the headtube to make his fake lugs more realistic.

Marcus Helman
Huntington Woods, MI