Where did this notion of the non-existance of 753 blades come from? One listmember recently noted that his frame included a fork decal marked "753 fork blades" or some such. Wouldn't such a sticker be a little odd of no such blade existed?
As I recall a lot of fuss was made about the special 753 frok blades, because they were only available pre-raked from Reynolds. Only certain offsets were available. My understanding was that the blades were raked, then heat treated, and couldn't be altered after that. This was one of the more oft-noted tidbits regarding 753. And yes, the steerers were all 531, as noted earlier.
Other 753 tidits that were widely discussed in the day:
You can't chrome it (though it can actually be chromed w/o problem according to folks who would know).
"Silver solder only" though this assertion has been questioned on this list, as has the relevance of the term "silver solder"
It can't be cold set (either after brazing or crash damage). I assume this is more or less true, but I'm not a frame builder, not even close.
You need to pass "the 753 test." This, I assume, arose from the previous two issues. That is, bad brazing (overheating) was a bigger issue because of the heat treatment, and bad alignment could not be corrected by cold setting. Also, it was said that the tolerances on the joints needed to be tight b/s silver doesn't fill big gaps.
Pretty much just barfing up what I recall about 753 here, but for ceratin there was much talk about the special blades. Man, that 753 stuff was the most ultra-super-de-duper exotic tubing at one time.
Tom Dalton Bethlehem, PA, USA
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