In the beginning, getting 753 certification was a big deal. It was a difficult test to pass - much more so then when I finally got around to taking it. I remember talking to (I think) Bill Terry of Reynolds who told me almost all the American submissions had failed. He said only 5 people/companies world wide had successfully passed the test out of many applications. This would have been sometime before 1978. In that conversation he said they did more then destructive testing but also had stringent alignment requirements. They would check it for perfect alignment and then put the frame on some kind of shaker - like a paint mixer - and see if the alignment still held up afterwards. The assumption was that if it had been cold set, this would take it back to where it started. He warned me that 753 couldn't be cold set and had to be brazed at a temperature where you didn't see any red color. This thorough test described to me personally by Reynolds at the New York show, at the factory in Birmingham and by Gerald O'Donovan (the head of the Illkston works where Raleigh 753 frames were made) clearly means there was 2 very different standards applied to the certification test depending on what time period it was taken. Eventually the marketing boys won over the engineers but they weren't in control in the beginning or there wouldn't have been so many failures by established builders.
I remember my friend and framebuilder extraordinaire, Rich Gangle passed this test when the submission of a complete frame was required. When he made his test frame, he turned out the down the lights so he could make sure of the temperature. Later when I got around to taking it, like others described, I just had to braze some short tubes into a bottom bracket shell. No big deal but you had to have some basic competence. It certainly didn't stretch any of my abilities.
This warning by Reynolds of all the failures by Americans and others taking the test led me to my visit of the Illkston works in September of 1978. I wanted to see how they did it so when I took my test, I wouldn't be making any mistakes. For example what you used as a reference to align a frame (the drive or non drive side bottom bracket shell face - or something else) will have a lot to do with the outcome. This was the information I was looking for. Keep in mind that Reynolds and Raleigh were all owned by the same parent company, TI Investments. I've told the story here before where I was to meet O'Donovan at a certain time. While driving there I remembered I had left my passport with the doctor's family I lived with a few years before while leaning at Ellis Briggs. I had no choice but to turn around a get it, missing the time of my appointment. Of course he was gone by the time I was there so I wondered into the shop area and asked if I could hang around and take pictures. I had a good time until O'Donovan showed up an hour later screaming for me to get out of there. I still have the pictures of them cold setting the frames and getting the joints red hot.
In talking to the guys in there, they said had to pay their dues to be skilled enough to make it making 753. They weren't just anybody pressed into factory service. That is the story they told me anyway. They had a lot of pride in their stature of having the qualifications to make these top end frames. I didn't ask them what qualified them to be working there although some standard was definitely implied. Looking right now at those pictures of my visit there, I see about 4 brazers and 3 or 4 other workers.
By the way, Tim Isaac was an established framebuilder when he went to work for Trek.
Doug Fattic
Niles, Michigan