Peter Palamara writes:
> I am restoring a mid 80's Colnago. The frame has a braze-on
> for the front derailer, but the derailer I want to fit is a
> Shimano 600 clamp/bracket style to the seat tube. The bike
> mechanic says that he cannot fit the derailer since the frame
> and the derailer are incompatible.
>
> Surely there must be some sort of adapter to make a clamp-on
> front derailer compatible with a frame that has a brazed fitting
> for it. Am I being naive here or is the bike mechanic clueless???
Your mechanic is essentially right. If you had the part of the derailleur that attaches to the braze-on, you could swap that for your part with the clamp, using your cage, parallelogram arms and spring, but that part isn't usually available separately for Shimano 600.
There is a part to adapt the other way - to mount a braze-on derailleur to a frame with no braze-on - but that won't help in your situation.
Mark Bulgier
Seattle, Wa
USA