Greg S. and Chuck S. wrote:
snip) and that's an issue that is worthy of debate...were
> the Mexico Oros gold plated or simply gold lacquered over chrome?
> Looking at several old Oro frames....I would put money on the lacquer
> with the exception of the Pope's bike and also the later Nuovo Mexico
> with the gold stays and fork blades.
Just had a frame from 1977 restored... wasn't gold lacquer Greg, the frame had gold plating.
Chuck Schmidt South Pasadena, CA USA
the pope's bike may have actual gold plating (I wouldn't know), but the frame Chuck had restored I'm familiar with, and I believe the "gold plating" was a form of gold-tinted chrome. Very thin, very fragile, and, in the few examples of the type I've seen, did not hold up well at all. But it was plating. Not paint.
Gold plating would have done better, assuming a good, clean job with no way for water to get to the base metal underneath.
Charles Andrews
SoCal