John Thompson wrote:
> Dave was fond of the Takahashi investment castings, and that
> does look like a Takahashi fork crown:
>
> http://www.os2.dhs.org/
I agree that the fork probably has a Takahashi crown, model "MER", the one pictured in John's photo takahashi.jpg
I don't think the lugs in John's picture are Takahashi however (maybe John wasn't saying they were?) - I'm 98% sure those are Eisho, which are actually nicer than any lugs Takahashi sold. I used to work for the main US importer of Takahashi framebuilding parts (late 80s - early 90s), and I always wished we could get the Eisho lugs instead... Takahashi stuff was very good quality, just not as cool as the Eisho IMHO (mostly based on aesthetic appeal)
The BB shell in the pic is definitely Takahashi, and is a very nice piece, one of the best BB shells ever.
Fun fact about Tesch forks - they all had the same fork rake regardless of head angle, and he said this was by design, that the important thing for handling was the rake (or offset), not the trail as most other builders believe. He made the forks in relatively large batches, with long unthreaded steerers, then cut them down and threaded them as needed for the bike the fork was destined for. He had a cool steerer threading machine with some sort of split die (from his description - I never saw it) that allowed the die to come right off the fork after it had gone down far enough - never had to back up.
Mark Bulgier
Seattle WA USA