Mark Bulgier wrote:
> I don't think the lugs in John's picture are Takahashi however (maybe
> John wasn't saying they were?) - I'm 98% sure those are Eisho, which are
> actually nicer than any lugs Takahashi sold. I used to work for the
> main US importer of Takahashi framebuilding parts (late 80s - early
> 90s), and I always wished we could get the Eisho lugs instead...
> Takahashi stuff was very good quality, just not as cool as the Eisho
> IMHO (mostly based on aesthetic appeal)
Interesting. Those are actually some vendor samples from when I worked
at Trek, so they date back to mid-80's at the latest. I always thought
they were Takahashi lugs -- they were in the same sample box IIRC -- but
perhaps they are Eisho.
> The BB shell in the pic is definitely Takahashi, and is a very nice
> piece, one of the best BB shells ever.
Yes; very sweet shell.
> Fun fact about Tesch forks - they all had the same fork rake regardless
> of head angle, and he said this was by design, that the important thing
> for handling was the rake (or offset), not the trail as most other
> builders believe. He made the forks in relatively large batches, with
> long unthreaded steerers, then cut them down and threaded them as needed
> for the bike the fork was destined for. He had a cool steerer threading
> machine with some sort of split die (from his description - I never saw
> it) that allowed the die to come right off the fork after it had gone
> down far enough - never had to back up.
We had a machine like that at Trek. Works a treat when you have a lot of forks to thread.
--
-John Thompson (john@os2.dhs.org)
Appleton WI USA