At 16:41 3/2/2001 -0600, Rick Chasteen wrote:
> > Classic content question: Were there any production line style
> > machines making bikes in the era of our interests?
Douglas Brooks suggested Trek...
I think that the implied question was, "were there vintage-era bikes of high quality ("professional") that were built, and well-built at that, with substantial mechaization. May I speculate?
1) I believe that there was pretty fair availability of rather inexpensive machine tooling after WW II. I would bet that many relatively high-volume custom builders picked up a lathe or mill for fish-mouthing the tubes. I know customer frame makers to day who mount the tube on the cross-feed of a lathe and use a cutter mounted on the lathe chuck to make this a very clean operation, much faster than filing by hand. British builders excepted.... :-)
2) From their very high quality and relatively moderate prices, I always guessed that the early Fuji "Finest" and "Newest" models used some machinery to speed the process. I have knowledge here, but that could have been as simple as fixed jigs, one per frame size, to speed set-up. Heck, Raleigh and Schwinn might have done that for the non-custom sizes. If memory serves, by the 70s I saw a lot of bikes that were built without pins to hold the lugs to the tubing while brazing, which at least suggests some decent jigs. I find freehand brazing without pins a bit frustrating, since it means tacking and then cooling to check alignment, but I'm a rank amateur.
Finally, a semantic point: If Douglas can "get away" with nominating early Treks as classics, I'd wanna bring down the wrath of the entire group by also nominating the ca. 1980 (?) all Campy Cannondale special edition. No, lads & lassies, I'm not trying to restart a religious war, just trying to tweak you. :-)
Harvey "yep, that stuff gets hot" Sachs
> > Douglas Brooks
>
>
>Trek?
>
>Rick Chasteen