"Hello there, CR Listers". Just got back to the wetlands of northern England after spending seven weeks out and about in a very sunny France. More of which anon..
I've only just managed to read the first 1000 contributions of the the last 30 days, by "My My" such contraversy...All those emails about the way in which a chainstay is measured.. and there again what's all this brouhaha about old CB's and Harry's "bi-lams"? You can have no idea of the severity of the withdrawal symptoms I have felt in being cut loose in that fantastic country, amongst all those vineyards, not to mention the junk-shops, charity warehouses etc, without so much as a lap-top to keep me company in the evenings. Just imagine -seven whole weeks with no eBay, no Classicrendezvous.
To work, with gusto.. As I recall, Reynolds introduced its 531SL in or around 1975/6... and it created feelings of havoc and mutiny among the British frame-building community at that time, due to Reynolds' insistence that builders should use silver-solder instead of silicon-bronze/spelter. I was pretty close to Jack Briggs of Ellis-Briggs' frames at that time. Now Briggs' were known for quality workmanship, but being Yorkshiremen didn't like to spend more than necessary on materials. "Best place for m'money's in m' pocket!" Jack was outraged that the Reynolds rep. suggested that he should "fork out all that extra brass ( Yorkshire-speak for "money") for somethin' to do wi' silver, when we know our brass! ( meaning "brazing rods)".
Jack was quite correct in his logic because the 531SL was not a new material in the way that 753 was, but was simply the old 531 steel drawn down to finer gauges to make it lighter. Now Jack had been building for decades and could recall, along with other Yorkshire builders jusr down the road, such as Bob Jackson, Maurice Woodrup, Johnny Mapp;lebeck (Pennine frames) Jack Baines etc, that they had been able to order 531 in a wide variety of gauges for year after year, and so they were already very used to brazing up the thinner gauges.. had been doing it for years.."It's all in't torch and't flame..nowt to get fussed up ower" And, as the Bible said, "it all came to pass" and they probably continued to braze up with the silicon bronze having "...no time for them new-fangled ideas"
I do recall that Jack had other worries too about 531SL (Special Lightweight), and those concerned the way in which the gear-side chainstay has "flats" instead of flutes in the area where the tyre and the chainrings would run. "Not natural at all..they'll all break in time." And so it came to pass again... or at least many of the stays broke at the start of the "flat" section. The seat stays too were an abject failure a gave rise to flexing to such an extent that many builders, myself included, always used Columbus SL/PL stays instead of the 531SL.
Such was the panic among many builders in respect of the silver-solder issue that I organised, via the local Engineering College, a special seminar for frame-builders, in order to study different types of heat sources for use in building. Most builders had adopted the oxy-acetylene torch for brazing which, without judicious use, it was all too easy to "burn out" the special fluxes needed for the lower-melting point silver rods. Coal/town gas and compressed air was far better and kinder, but much slower. I invited Gerald O'Donovan, the the "guru" at Raleigh, and brains behind the 753 tube set to come along, but he declined. However he did ask to be kept informed of the outcome of our experimentation because at that time Raleigh was using oxy-aceltylene to silver-solder up the 753 frames in its Special Products unit. When I suggested using a "less hot heat source" Gerald replied that such a move ould slow down production "... we build the frames on a sort of... mass-produced,, basis" he apologised.
Norris Lockley -- thinking "it's nice to be back" but I can't wait for September 30 to come too quickly, so I can set off to France again from a very, very wet Settle