snipped: "In the late 40s/early 50s the Pro head-lugs did not have that readily identifiable little swirl..."
i think the confusion is based in this: nervex, the firm, offered
many MANY combinations of decorative elements with which the orderer,
if there is such a word, could "design" his own sets. there had to be near 50 feature cuts for the main tube areas and almost as many for the area 'round the head tube. fwiw, some combos would have looked atrocious, but the one you're referencing had the all-to-familiar ref 49 decoration on the tubes but with a similar-but-slightly-different decoration on the head tube. in essence, there was a time that these lugs were made to order (for industrial use...) and i am sure that distributors in the trade also spec-ed some for resale.
e-RICHIE
chester, ct
Sorry to read that Michael Butler is having difficulty finding framesets with these lugs down in the home county jumbles ; it's probably because I have most of them in my store!
No joking, Michael... seven out of ten frames that I am offered are indistinguishable Nervex Pro ones. In France recently I happened upon a charity warehouse where, of the quality frames and bikes, four were of the Nervex Pro variety. All except one had been hand-painted to various levels of acceptabilty, the remaining one proudly bore a full livery of LOOK 1985/6 Hinault carbon frame decals, probably due to the fact that LOOK's warehouse was about 5 miles up the road. I tried diagnosing the frames from top-eyes and drop-outs but without much luck... and the longer I diagnosed, the more my impatient wife champed at the bit to hit the road....and me! She complains that I get on her Nervexes.. One that I left behind had the best known Pro pattern lugs linked to ugly plate drop-outs reminiscent of cheap Peugeots...but something I saw since my return leads me to think that that is a rare frame. An equally unlikely looking frame, Pro lugs apart, was bought for the stronglight 57 chainset that it sported.
In the late 40s/early 50s the Pro head-lugs did not have that readily identifiable little swirl, but had instead two delicate little prongs.. and these can often be seen in the UK on Hill Specials, Mercians, some Flying Scots etc. The other curiosity that is Nervex and very Pro, in the bottom bracket and some other parts of the lug-set's cut-outs, is a set on a late40s/early 50s Cazenhave. That On the head tube the lugs resemble, in sde elevation, Bob Freemans mystery lugs, but on the front elevation they are exceptionally nonedescript. I've never come across these elswhere..but they're definitely Nervex... but they're not in the well-known 50s catalogue
Does anyone out there have a catalogue., photo of such an early Nervex Pro pattern?
Norris Lockley, Settle UK