[CR] Cuevas Photos up on Wool Jersey and Questions

(Example: Humor)

Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:03:59 -0700
From: Jerome & Elizabeth Moos <jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR] Cuevas Photos up on Wool Jersey and Questions


We had a recent thread about Cuevas, including an eBay bike that was claimed to be owned but not built by Francisco.

I've now added several more albums to Wool Jersey, including one for my Cuevas.  I think I posted these pics last year soon after I rebuilt the bike.  But the SOB's at FLICKR imposed new limits on my free account to try to blackmail me into "upgrading" to the same service I previously received free at $25 per year.  So the Cuevas photos became unavailable as only the last 200 images uploaded can be displayed on FLICKR.

I am therefore moving all my bike images to Wool Jersey, which is now back online thanks to Morgan's monumental efforts.  Like many here, I kicked in my bit of funds to help Morgan recover from the catastrophic Wool Jersey crash, and I must say I infinitely prefer contributing to that worthy cause rather than paying the bastards at Yahoo/FLICKR $25 per year in blackmail.  I would urge all CR members who can to kick in something annually to Wool Jersey upkeep, maybe at least the $25 per year one might other wise have to pay Yahoo for "FLICKR Pro".  And besides the money, the funds ponied up by CR members to restore the site did not begin to cover Morgan's massive number of manhours in this effort, so I think we all owe him a vote of thanks as well.

Back to the Cuevas, note it demonstrates several Cuevas signatures, including the fluted, semi-wraparound seatstays, which are very similar to those used by Pepe Limongi, who was building frames for Paris Sport at the same time as Cuevas.  Wonder who copied who?  Also the distinctive junctions of the satys to the DO's, the high peak on the seatlug, and the cross reinforcement under the steerer tube.

I do not yet have a definitive date for this bike, although I think it is definitely in the decade from 1975 to 1985.  One clue is the 531 SL tubing.  The decals here are repros but there was a remant of an original decal large enough to definitely identify it as 531 SL.  I think this tubeset, with perhaps minor changes, was known a 531 SL, 531 Pro and finally 531c all within a relatively few years.  So the 531 SL tubing may help narrow down the date of the frame.  Anyone know what years 531 SL was sold?

Finally, checking the storage yesterday, I was disappointed to find that the Zeus hoods on the NOS Super Cronos brakes I built this up with a year ago, plus NOS Zeus hoods I installed on the 2000 brakes on my wife's ALAN Competition at the same time have split already, just sitting in the enclosed, though not climate-controlled storage.  Thus they lasted only about a year even with very little use.  They were gum hood, which usually don't last as long as non-gum, but one year with nealy no use seems ridiculous.  Anyone else experience Zeus gum hoods being fragile, even by gum standards?

Regards,

Jerry Moos
Big Spring, Texas, USA