Ray Green wrote:
> Simon Bird wrote:-
> <When I first became aware of this classic/vintage
bike malarky I
> laughed at the obsessive period correctness of the
restorations. If
> I'd
> got out then I'd have saved a small
fortune............
>
> When I got the frame someone had hacked off
the Simplex
> derailleur hanger from the forged double-sided
Agrati drop-out>
> What could be more period correct that a 1950's
frame with the Simplex
> gear hanger hack-sawed off? That's what guys did
when they wanted
> to use
> a Campag or Benelux gear. It must have been done to
thousands of
> frames
> in the fifties and early sixties.
Perhaps nothing could be more period correct for the late 50s early 60s than an early 50s frame with the hanger inexpertly hacked off (whilst wobbling around on a kitchen table in a two-up-two-down in Deptford in 1957).
And perhaps if this frame had come to me with the patina from a history of good care and hard use, well looked after with some decent parts, a case could be made for preservation. However the frame was trashed, rear hanger hacked, shifter boss badly hacked -partly into the tube and the top tube slightly bent from a front ender.
So because of the condition I got it in I'm interested in returning it to what it was when built, top of the line from one of the best British lightweight builders. Not the un-loved abused thing it became as its parts became obsolete, its Simplex braze-ons a pain, its geometry and ornate lugs un-fashionable.
No doubt a future case will be made for all the campag hangers hacked off classic 80s road frames by fixed gear fakengers (fake messengers) as a classic owner modification of the early 21st century, along with the carbon forks!
Anyway that still leaves me wanting/needing an early 50's Simplex drop out.
Simon Bird Peckham London UK
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