Harry,
I think I know what Norris Lockley is referring to in the 'Competition Team Pro Bike' on Ebay (which, according to its serial number, is a 1979 comp gs model painted in red/yellow/black paint, with a yellow head-tube.) By the way, after 1974 raleigh (but not ilkeston) continued to produce bikes with yellow head-tubes; for example, the Raleigh-Record level bike ALWAYS had a yellow head-tube, it never had a black one.
Reynolds produced 2 versions of pre-raked 531 fork blades. The earlier "curved" blades contained a smooth and continuous bend, all the way out to the dropout eyes. Example :
http://img.auctiva.com/
there was a latter type of fork blade, where the blades seem to have a 135 degree bend at 3/4 down the blade, from whence they go straight out to the dropout eyes. So these blades are "bent" at a single location, about 3/4 of the way down the blade :
http://img.auctiva.com/
Norris is complaining that these "bent" blades do not absorb shocks as well as the original "curved" reynolds blades. In my opinion, the reynolds blades are half the value of a reynolds 531 frame's ride, so he may well be correct. However, I'm not sure the bend is creating the problem, it may be that the bent blades are not "taper gauge" which was a process that produced uniform wall thickness throughout the earlier blades.
In any event I have no firsthand knowledge about which blades produce a harsher ride, and why ...
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA, USA