Dear Norris and all,
Thanks to the dozen or so list members who responded (mostly off- list) to my email about "Modern KOF Path racers" bikes and frames. I am humbled and deeply appreciative of your generous info, photos, links, and suggestions. (What an amazing community! :-)
Tom Hayes offered a link to a delightful CR-based discussion thread about path racers and their myriad relatives on the British racing and riding scene(s):
http://www.wooljersey.com/
Peter Brueggeman opened my eyes to the variety of options for finding an affordable "daily rider" on ebay and ebay UK.
Chuck Schmidt offered a careful, narrow, and traditional (shall we say "strict constructionist" ?) definitional perspective in true CR fashion, to keep me from wandering any farther afield and OT. I welcomed his response to my ignorance. (I am prone to CR heresies, as most of you know.)
And not the tempter of tempters, Norris Lockley, is dangling the "bait" of period-correct, authentic tubing, lugs, and even twin-plate fork crowns before us. how could one possibly get more "KOF" than to have him build you a made-to-measure English treasure?
I have no funds for such a lovely project right now, but can easily see a few of my fellow listers rising rapidly to "nibble" at his priceless offer. (And why not?)
Thanks again to all of you who have contributed to my education and excitement, as well as steered me back towards true and proper CR/KOF orthodoxy.
Gratefully yours,
Jon Spangler Alameda, CA USA
On Oct 25, 2009, at 2:37 PM, <classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org>
<classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org> wrote:
>
> Message: 12
> Date: Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:37:29 +0000
> From: Norris Lockley <nlockley73@googlemail.com>
> Subject: [CR] Modern KOF road/path framesets
> To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Message-ID:
> <29cfc1e00910251437i2ec631dcldf1b854a42d38c0@mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
>
> There are certainly not many framebuilders active in the Uk these
> days, and
> fewer still with any stock of old lugs, chainstays twin-plate
> fork crowns
> etc etc
>
> Bob Jackson, Mercian, Argos, Arthur Caygill, Neil Orrell ( in the
> shadow of
> the Manchester velodrome!) come to mind.
>
> I have recently been taking stock of my tubes, lugs etc etc and,
> after a
> considerable lay-off due to spending much time in France renovating a
> property there, I have just started building again, and may consider
> undertaking a few road-paths to order.
>
> To create a truly 50s looking, very authentic frame I still have
> four sets
> of round-to-round rapid taper chainstays- an indispensable feature
> of all
> top road-path frames - several sets of Nervex Pro lugs, a couple of
> sets of
> EKLA cast lugs (much used and tweaked in the day by 40sand50s
> builders)
> several sets of 50s track drop-outs, sixty-nine twin-plate round fork
> crowns, eight pairs of round track blades, several sets of hand-cut
> lugs..Oh! and four Jack Taylor curved seat tubes, a couple of
> other 50s
> compound curved seat tubes. ..and about twenty sets of Haden
> Concorde very
> long point lugs. I would also seriously consider building twin-seat
> tubeb a
> la Saxon frames..or bi-laminated or fully bronze-welded frames.
>
> I am not an avaricious man, but have spent far too many years, like
> the vast
> bulk of UK builders, building excellent custom-made frames at
> modest prices,
> because that was what the market in the UK demanded for so long. I
> shudder
> at times when I read some of the prices being fetched by rather crappy
> frames on Ebay such as that brand new old stock green Helyett, last
> week, If
> you look at the head tube picture and then examine the brazing on
> the L/H
> side of the upper head-lug, you will see that you could almost put
> your
> finger nail in the gap.
>
> I am open to suggestions, projects WHY. Any frame needs to be
> stimulating as
> well as financially worth putting the effort into it..otherwise I will
> probably buy another house in France and sublimate my desires that
> way. My
> present house in France has large stone barns and I'm tempted to
> start up
> over there. The village is called Thauvenay - TOE-VAN-AY (just outside
> Sancerre). The marque name that interests me at the moment is Bernard
> Thauvenay ! Does it sound familiar?
>
> Norris Lockley..Settle UK (Ancient Keeper of the Flame)
>
Jon Spangler Writer/editor Linda Hudson Writing
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