I must be loosing the plot... or have I misinterpreted other comments on this bike? Is someone suggesting that a 58cms frame should not have a 5 6 cms top-tube length ?
Presumably the original owner had longish legs and a relatively, but not ve ry short trunk, thereby necessitating having a frame with a slightly shorte r top-tube, rather than a very short handlebar stem
There is no rule in frame-building that states that all frames should be SQ UARE ie have top-tube the same length as the seat tube...and it is somethin g of a coincidence that most 56cms frames do have a 56cms top-tube...but no t all of them by a long way..
Another problem escapes me too. Singer has adapted a Huret Jubilee fron t mech, by removing the front clamping arm from the mech and by somehow fix ing the remainder of the derailleur to the back of the seat tube. I have lo ts of these extremely lightweight Jubillee front mechs..and the clamps, front and rear are always made of aluminium alloy...never steel.
Singer used to use similarly modified Huret Success and other models of fro nt mechs, but these were made of steel... a metal that could be silver-so ldered to the steel of the Reynolds seat tube.
I have occasionally read that there are brazing and soldering alloys that w ill work on steel to aluminium alloy joints..but I have never come across a ny for sale..or perhaps I never looked hard enough..or needed any.
Does anyone know how Singer actually managed to make the cut-down Jubilee m ech hand on to the rear of the seat tube. The tension from the gear cable m ust have been quite high.
I suppose that epoxy adhesives have been around for fifty years or more - t hey might do the trick where there is a large enough area to be bonded. Or am I loosing the plot?
Norris Lockley...puzzled in Settle UK