>Putting it in perspective: That "Old Continental" long skinny oval is
>the classic Reynolds fork blade as seen on all the pre-'75
>Reynolds-tubed bikes we love, and quite a few after that date: the
>PX-10s, early-70s Raleigh Pros and Internationals, Gitane TdF and
>Service Course, LeChampions, Paramounts, Singers... So while true that
>these forks are in fact stiffer and harsher, they are found on so many
>bikes that were regarded as very comfortable.
As far as Alex Singers go, many Singers had specially drawn fork blades that were not the "continental oval." At the fork crown, they start out as the continental oval, but below the braze-ons for the cantilever brakes, they quickly taper to round and very small diameter.
Despite what you say about the cross section at the fork blade having the biggest influence on the ride, these forks do absorb a lot more shock than other. Maybe finally the blade diameter got thin enough that it could flex? Going through a dip, you actually feel a bit of "rebound" when you leave the dip. And when you try to do a track stand, especially with the old Singer cam-actuated brakes (which cannot self-center), you rub the rim on the brake and the wheel can't move. You either turn the bars straight and move or fall over.
None of this happens on Singers with the same geometry and standard "continental oval" blades. I think if you rode one of the "Singer special" forks, you would agree that they do flex very differently. (BTW, it seems some other makers used these fork blades, too. The Charles Pelissier randonneur bike discussed a few days ago appears to be so equipped.)
Again, I am not discounting that for most standard forks, the flex occurs at the fork crown, but once you get the diameter thin enough, my experience is that there is flex lower down, too, especially on bikes with lots of fork offset and a bend at the bottom. One Singer I rode for the front-end geometry article in Vintage Bicycle Quarterly Vol. 3, No. 3 had 80 mm of fork offset (rake) - the bottom of the fork blade at the dropouts started almost horizontal... It was a "Singer special" blade and it did ride extremely comfortably - even for a 650B bike.
For an example of the "Singer special" fork blade, see
http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com/
By the way, the blades remained the same even after Singer switched to centerpull brakes with their higher braze-on placement.
Quite a few British bikes had similar blades, only they started tapering immediately, rather than remaining oval all the way to the brake braze-ons. (Of course, most British bikes didn't use brazed-on brakes anyhow.)
At least one Herse used these blades, see
http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com/
not to be confused with the more common all-round blades Herse used on bikes with twin-plate fork crowns:
http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com/
I am looking for a set of blades either in the Singer pattern or the "British" pattern. Does anybody have a set they can sell or trade? -- Jan Heine, Seattle Editor/Publisher Vintage Bicycle Quarterly c/o Il Vecchio Bicycles 140 Lakeside Ave, Ste. C Seattle WA 98122 http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com