The seat stay top-eye with nthe long slit cut into it, was quite a CASATI hallmark during the 80s..or at least that was when I first came across it..about 1983.
I remember seeing this feature when I was on the Casati stand at an early Milan Show..and I think it was a very elegant and polite chap in his 50s, Luigi (?) Casati who showed me around the products. The slotted treatment was also applied, I think, to certain models of brake bridges ie those that had been milled out of rectangular bar - some of the SILVA models - as opposed to being turned out of round stock. The top-eye on the EL frame is definitely produced from solid bar and probably has had the slot milled along it.
So impressed was I with this attempt to lighten the top-eye both physically and visiually that I adopted a variation on the theme for some while on some of my own frames. However instead of leaving the upper and pointed end of the eye exposed I cut it off to a square end and tapered it to a feather edge. When this was laid onto the seat lug I flushed in some nickel bronze and then filed and finished off in the style of the Fiorelli, Frejus, and Atala frames of the 50s and 60s. It appeared that the eye was integral with the lug and that the slot, which was normally picked out in a contrasting colour, had been cast into the lug. Very neat and go-faster in appearance.
Well those were the days when a framebuilder could experiment a little..before the crows' s**t TIG welding swept all before it.
Norris Lockley Settle Uk
---------------------------------
Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search.