Stephen Maasland has seen almost everything and is almost always right, but I found myself questioning his logic in one part of his response to Jan Heine and others:
Jan had said (if I caught the thread correctly): "A 52-48 with a standard 14-28 Regina 5-speed freewheel makes sense." to which Stephen replied: "This is a truly odd statement, as 14-28 was not a 'standard' in Regina's Italian home market, so any bike having this freewheel would not be respecting what the freewheel maker determined to be 'standard'."
Whoa! If I recall correctly, Regina made freewheels and sold them (mostly) to manufacturers. I reckon that when some weird British or French mfg. asked for 14-28 FW, Regina, while still up in the air, asked, "would you like 17-20-24 in the middle, or 16-19-23?" We have a lovely Regina Oro 5-sp 13 - 31 for Susan's bike, dating back to the early to mid 70s, I think. Aftermarket, but they weren't too proud to make it, and do it well. But, perhaps no one outside Italy ever specified Reginas... I think, but haven't checked the catalogue, that they came standard on 60s and 70s Paramounts, which included a pretty wide range on the non-racing models.
BTW, the 52-48 with a 14-28 ain't a bad half-step, if that's the original point.
Just a bit of nit-picking.
harvey sachs
mcLean va