At 03:05 AM 8/22/2008, Amir wrote:
>Whenever I see a trashed bike on the side of the road
>I stop to see if anything is worth recovering.
>
>In Israel they are mostly old Raleighs and Peugeots.
>Its always taken a long time to work loose all the nuts,bolts, headsets and
>bottom brackets.
>In every case the threads rusted and seized.
>
>So when I found an old Panasonic, I expected the worst.
>To my surprise everything came apart in minutes.
>
>Is this typical of old Japanese bikes, or was I just lucky?
No, in my experience with the British products it's a matter of cultural DNA. On my '95 Range Rover, virtually every single nut, bolt or screw welded itself to whatever it was fastened to. Never had that problem with a Japanese car, or German or Swedish for that matter!
Can't say about the French...
:)
Lee
Lee Levitt
http://www.wheelman.com
Needham, Massachusetts, USA