"where are the postings on great Chinese lightweights or I love my Fuji?"
Has anyone ever tried to track down obscure builders of the past through Reynolds' shipping records? It's not unusual for British firms to keep records for a very long time. I wonder if they ever shipped any tubesets to China, or Borneo, or Uruguay ... probably a lot of small-time framemakers building for the local market here and there.
Of course, there's no guarantee that the tubes would be used for classic lightweights, or for bikes at all. It could be a way to get tubing for a secret aircraft project, for instance. But I bet more than a few bikes were made in more than a few obscure corners of the cycling world.
Third World Lightweights, anyone?
Dennis Ryan Louisville, KY (a state with its share of Third World Tendencies)