Re: [CR]Raleigh Pro Mk IV?

(Example: Framebuilders:Masi)

From: Donald Gillies <gillies@cs.ubc.ca>
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 10:08:16 -0700 (PDT)
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: Re: [CR]Raleigh Pro Mk IV?

As someone who owns 3 Internationals (1974) and one Pro Mk III (1974) with Victor Seatstays, I think it's good that they didn't copy the brazing method over from the International to the Pro Mk IV.

My Internationals have more traditional caps that inset within the seat stay tubes. On all my bikes due to flexion or whatever, the paint has cracked between the teardrop-shaped inset, and the seatstay tube that surrounds the inset. Each inset cap can clearly be seen bec cause the paint has cracked from 1 o'clock to 12 o'clock around the cap. One previous owner was told by a bike shop that the frame was about to fail and that he should get it welded right away to prevent an imminent failure !!

Therefore, the oversized caps in the Pro MK IV might actually be hiding a problem that was seen on similar Workshop frames like the International, with the "cracking" seat caps.

- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA