It's an aesthetic, a "look." Personally, I think that style is multo cool. If you do it right, the brass just sucks back in a tad, leaving a nice-looking fillet / complex radius in that area. My Ilkeston-built Raleigh Team Pro also has that style of brazing at the tips. I figure if it was good enough for many French builders, and good enough for G.O.D. at Raleigh, it must be OK! Plus, the French in general (not always, OK, so no flames please) were more about function than pretty joints on their frames, as Sir Richard so righteously stated. Greg "brasé à la main" Parker Ann Arbor, Michigan (hope those "graves" and "egues" format properly) Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 13:00:53 -0700 (PDT) From: Fred Rafael Rednor <fred_rednor@yahoo.com> To: "richardsachs@juno.com" <richardsachs@juno.com>, LouDeeter@aol.com Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: Re: [CR]NOW: francophile minoosha. Was Guerciotti and Tempesta
e-RICHIE writ:
> what you're refering to is what happens when the > brass is not fully closing the end of the fork > and stay - it's recessed a bit. that is, more > than anything, the french way. french builders > were notorious about function over fashion and > many/most simply used enough brass "there" so > that it all held together.
I noticed this the other night while cleaning up the early '70s
LeJeune track bike I'll be racing this weekend. Was brass more
expensive in France, or was time at a premium, or what?
There's a place where one of the fork ends meets the chainstay
that seems to have the absolute minimum amount of brass that
would still provide a solid joint.
Amitiés,
Fred Rednor, Arlington, Virginia