Re: [CR] 70's B. Carre "cracked?" Head lugs?

(Example: History:Ted Ernst)

From: "Dave Porter" <frogeye@porterscustom.com>
To: 'John Betmanis' <johnb@oxford.net>, <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
References: <661334.86527.qm@web110316.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> <3.0.6.32.20090701150749.01825f68@mailhost.oxford.net>
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 13:22:55 -0600
Thread-Index: Acn6fzjyYfCXtR6oR+yTtnzn648x8gAAYfwg
In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.20090701150749.01825f68@mailhost.oxford.net>
Subject: Re: [CR] 70's B. Carre "cracked?" Head lugs?


John, I looked at it this morning but wasn't able to make a definitive call based on the photos. The thing take mildly concerns me is that the crack does not follow the radius of the lug edges, which may indicate a true failure at hand. Bottom line is: It's steel and will not fail catastrophically. Put it in a bucket of water and see if it migrates into the down tube??? dave

frogeye@porterscustom.com

Porter Customs 2909 Arno NE Albuquerque, NM USA 87107 505-352-1378 1954 BN2 1959 AN5 Porter Custom Bicycles

cars: http://www.britishcarforum.com/portercustoms.html gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/porterscustombicycles/PorterCustomBicyclesStuff

blog: http://porterbikes.com/

-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of John Betmanis Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 1:08 PM To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: Re: [CR] 70's B. Carre "cracked?" Head lugs?

At 05:40 AM 01/07/2009 -0700, Tom Jue wrote:
>Dear list,
>
>Please help me in advising whether through the pictures,if in your opinion the lug(s) may be cracked, or that it may be just the paint???  This is a first for me.
>
>http://www.flickr.com/photos/27817184@N03/3678443628/
>http://www.flickr.com/photos/27817184@N03/3678443024/
>http://www.flickr.com/photos/27817184@N03/3677627841/
>http://www.flickr.com/photos/27817184@N03/3678441986/

I was waiting for a frame builder to chime in before offering my layman's opinion, but nobody has so far.

First of all, this is a small frame, where the top and bottom head lugs meet, or may even have been trimmed at this point where they meet. It's not a single lug that has "cracked". It appears as if the braze material has not formed a smooth fillet between the two lugs, or there was some slag floating in the flux residue that wasn't cleaned up, which didn't allow the paint to fill the "crack". Nothing serious, just a sloppy production brazing job. If someone more expert can offer a better explanation, please do.

John Betmanis
Woodstock, Ontario
Canada