In a message dated 10/22/2004 1:09:31 PM Eastern Daylight Time, gillies@cs.ubc.ca writes:
<< My Internationals have more traditional caps that inset within the seat stay tubes. On all my bikes due to flexion or whatever, the paint has cracked between the teardrop-shaped inset, and the seatstay tube that surrounds the inset. Each inset cap can clearly be seen bec cause the paint has cracked from 1 o'clock to 12 o'clock around the cap. >>
Don & all : All the 1960s -70s Internationals, along with the Gran Sports and Competitions, that I have seen have a brazed on cap not unlike the Pros we have been talking about. The difference is that they have had any "lip" filed, sanded or ground off. I have seen many of these and you are correct that most crack at those edges...
My theory (?) is that: 1.) Raleigh was sloppy in the filing or grinding of those edges and made the top walls of the seat stay tubing very thin, hastening failure, and 2.) They used that copper-like brazing material to tack these on before final brazing and it over-heated the joints, making them brittle & prone to crack. When the frames are stripped of paint, this copper tacking material can be seen at all the joints on many Carlton made models..
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