79pmooney

I had my '73 Competition stripped and inspected because I saw a big gap under the DT shifter stop and wondered what other braze might be missing. The framebuilder who inspected it called me to say there was little braze under the lugs and that a couple of tubes had cracked due to poor support. He flowed in from-scratch amounts of braze into most of the lugs. He also noted that the frame alignment was perfect. Maybe never saw the heat that would throw it off? My 'joke' is that the brazer tacked up the frame Friday morning, then took a long lunch. Went straight home after too many beers. Monday morning, frame went to paint. Painter saw all the gaps and used all of his skills to fill them with paint. My builder said that was what held the bike together.

I wasn't at all sure I trusted that frame to handle the washboard at the bottoms of gravel descents and didn't want it breaking under me. BTDT.

Ben

Bandera

Does anyone else remember the social history of the period in question when demand for "10 Speed" bikes was extraordinary in the US, labor unrest in the UK was high and well organized while the physical plants were obsolescent at best and management was driven by the "Export or Die" policies of government and the industrial sector?

The Results?

1) What you can ride today like less than pretty Carltons in previous pics and my '74 which is still in regular service despite being an "ugly duckling".
Don't forget the multiple US road championships ridden on Raleigh/Carlton Pros "back when". That which Worked, mostly still Works.

b) The rise of Japanese Mfgs with new industrial plants post war, a unique and effective workforce culture and adoption of W.E. Deming's statistical quality control methodology.

III) A little red building in Waterloo WI with a well designed and controlled process for bicycle frame construction using precise American machine tool technology and some smart motivated people.

-Bandera

scarlson 

Heh, too true about paint holding things together.

To think for a time I was riding on two different frames that were held together with adhesive (Vitus 979 and Holdsworth/Claud Butler), but I only knew about one...

As I've said in my contemporary thread, it's easy to repair these. Sesquilaminate construction! You just grind the bits of lug off that aren't brazed on, then braze up fillet joint in the shape of the lug, using the rest of the lug as a guide. You'll be the envy of all your friends, riding a fine understated British machine with a post-apocalyptic artisanal touch. I'm continuing to commute on mine and will repair as needed, so maybe in a few years I will have "collected" all the joints. I predict that the next thing to fail will be the seatstays, where they join the seat lug. That will be a fun repair!

qcpmsame 

These are exactly what I thought about, the unrest in the UK during that period was substantial. Some of the residents of the island realm could best speak to this though. Deming's QC methods had so much effect on Japanese mfgrng, and met so much resistance elsewhere, modern methods and acceptance of the science behind QC mfgr has truly changed things. (full disclosure, senior professional member of ASQ/24 + years, others here have more extensive knowledge on this topic than I ever will.)

Bill