In a contri a couple of days ago I mentioned the type of"make-overs" that I had to carry out in the mid-to-late 70s. on 1950s frames in order to bring them them up to current day specs. Generally these make-overs just involved removing out-dated braze-ons and adding newer-style ones. No great deal there really..
However I did mention too the fact that some customers wanted more dramatic changes wrought to their machines..changes involving surgery..the cutting away of surplus and unwanted metal much in the same way as some folk today have unwanted body flab sucked away or sliced off.
The most frequently requested surgery that was requested was the shortening of the rear triangle from an almost standard 17.5" to 16.5 or 16". Generally such amputations were not too taxing in technical terms...and not too difficult on my conscience. However one close friend who had accumulated a whole barn full of Baines "Gates" and Hetchins of most models, decided that the time had arrived to bring those frames willingly or unwillingly up to the relevant specs for the last quarter of the 20th Century.
I suppose I should have known better, had more conscience, should have protested more loudly etc etc One daythe friend turned up with a brace of Hetchins 6-Day models..the one with the fluted seat-tube..and asked me to cut back the chain-stays..to obtain a shorter wheelbase, pointing out that he wanted the tyre to slip into the flute. I did protest! I remember saying that the flute was to accept the mudguard., so that the frame could have guards and could still be relatively short. My arguments were not convincing...nor were they when on went the double bottle bosses, all the Campy cable chutes and the top-mounted gear lever boss for the aero lever. But the customer was delighted with the result..and I suppose that I gained financially, but not greatly so..not when carrying out surgery for a friend.
Possibly the most drastic "chop" was to cut down, reduce, a 24" Carpenter with Mk! Nervex Pro lugs down to a 21" As the customer pointed out...when he had bought the frame in the 50s it was the fashion to ride as big a frame as possible, with as little seat pillar and handlebar quill exposed. I remember I had raced on a 24" frame..now, having shrunk about 1.25" in 45 years I ride a 20.5"; and somewhere in those facts could be the explanation of why I never became a first Cat road man!
The surgery on the Carpenter proved much easier than I had thought, with the top-tube, complete with both head and seat lugs, just being sawn off with a hacksaw. Luckily for me Carpenter was a meticulous builder who always used silver-brazing alloys..and so the removal of the lugs from the top-tube was a pretty simple operation...and these were then re-used, although I decided to junk the top-tubeitself and to build in a new one. With a little tweaking of the rear triangle, a bit of judicious heat here and there..and the job was accomplished.
Looking back on those and other surgical operations, I now feel quite a few pangs of conscience...but someone, somewhere, just might still have a brace of very unusual Hetch's..and he or she might just want to get some anwers from the List.
Norris Lockley..Settle UK