>
> I just picked up a sorry old Legnano in trade for some braze-on work:
>
> http://www.os2.dhs.org/
>
> While not a complete structural failure, the right chainstay has rusted
> through just behind the bottom bracket.
>
> I intend to resurrect the old girl with some new chainstays.
>
> --
>
> -John Thompson (john@os2.dhs.org)
> Appleton WI USA
Given the naked assertion, "Forty year old professional bikes, built with thin seamless tubing, that have the original factory paint jobs, 90% of the time are not safe to ride as they decay from the inside, just like termites that eat out and stop when they reach the paint, the beam looks ok but the building falls down" would you consider that Legnano actually unsafe to ride? Steel tends to incremental and obvious degradation in structural performance rather than catastrophic failure likely to result in injury. Allow me to restate the question with greater specificity given the above assertion: Since that assertion is framed as a safety issue, how many of us have personally been injured by the catastrophic structural failure of a vintage steel frameset?
My suspicion is that the quoted assertion is essentially alarmist nonsense, but if it can be backed by significant even anecdotal data I could be in error.
Kurt Sperry Bellingham, Washington USA