I still have one unaswered question: How come lugs are stronger? How can a bond between steel and bronze be stronger than the bond between steel and steel? It just does not work that way owing to the metallurgical differences (also note that steel and bronze do not react). For the record, solder is weaker than a weld. Lugs may be strong enough for bicycle application (altough anything is debatable in the absence of hard data), but I like to hear an explanation as to *why* lugs are stronger than welds. It is easy to make an assertion without proof...I guess you see my point.
thanx.