Walter, I agree here with Greg; but if close examination as Greg suggests does not reveal it's been crashed, that could still leave the possibility as I stated below, of brazing distortion, and not to descredit the brand or brass brazing, but that distortion happens, more or less, for a number of reasons. I've learned much from some of my distortions! Joe Starck summumbonumboojum bicycles Madison, WI
> Walter, I'd wager your frame likely experienced a
> major frontal impact at some point in its past. I've
> seen headtubes do exactly as you describe from
> head-on crashes. Since the fork has gone missing,
> I'd say that's even more indication that a trauma
> occurred.
> One of my eBay "rules" is never, ever buy a used
> steel frame that doesn't have it's original fork
> present and unbent, unless you know and trust the
> seller. Otherwise, the likelihood (on eBay) of it
> having hit an immoveable object is about 80-90%
> IMO....
> Is there any ripple in the underside of the downtube
> near the tip of the headlug? (Look carefully - with
> relatively heavy tubing (is your frame SL or SP?),
> it can be very subtle, and can sometimes only be
> felt, not seen.
> Regards,
> Greg Parker
> A2 Michigan
>
> Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2004 17:21:09 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Joe Starck <josephbstarck@yahoo.com>
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Cc: "w.a. manning" <wamanning@email.com>
> Subject: Re: [CR]_laterally_ ovalized head-tube?
>
> Walter,
> The ovalization of your Bottecchia parallels
> ovalization that can occur at that area from
> high-temp' brazing(brass), either lugged or more
> often, when fillet-brazed. Perhaps the installation
> of
> the headseat rounded everything out, yet with cups
> removed, the metal sprung back?
> Joe Starck
> summumbonumboojum bicycles
> Madison, WI
>
> --- "w.a. manning" <wamanning@email.com> wrote:
>
> > my just-acquired bottecchia (used, columbus SL,
> > lugged) has what appears to be an oddly ovalized
> > head-tube.
> >
> > the lower-opening of the head-tube is wider
> > laterally than it is longitudinally. this strikes
> > me as very strange, as any ovalizing i've ever
> heard
> > of in the head-tube placed the stretched axis
> > longitudinally. there's nothing extraordinary
> about
> > the condition of the head-tube or frame that would
> > suggest any sort of major impact damage, although
> i
> > dont have the original fork to know for sure.
> > regardless, if there was a significant front-end
> > impact i would still expect any
> > deformation/stretching to be front-to-back, rather
> > than side-to-side.
> >
> > strange. anyone have any ideas? it's destined to
> > be an indoor-trainer bike, so it's not really that
> > important...but puzzling nonetheless.
> >
> > walter manning
> > metro-detroit-area, michigan
> > _______________________________________________
>
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