satbuilder 

Years ago I heard a rumor, that Dave Tesch used fork blades for chainstays, on the S-22.

Can anyone here verify that? I understand the frames were made from TT tubing.

Thanks!

repechage

I have one, if he used fork blades on the chainstays, they are Tandem fork blades
they measure accounting for paint, 1”, 25.4mm
Beef
Columbus PS track blades were 24mm

the frames are kind of scrappy, the bottom bracket is a spigot type just all the tubes fit OVER the spigots.

weight is not a concern.

JohnDThompson 

It wouldn't surprise me. Knowing Tesch, he'd have no objection to doing something like that. Standard fork blades start out as 22mm tubes, just like chainstays. Then they're tapered and the crown end is pressed into an oval shape for road bikes (track blades are left round). Columbus PS track blades were 24mm diameter; Tesch was really fond of "stiffness," if he used those for chainstays, they could slip over the bottom bracket shell chainstay spigots instead of inside them. He may even have gotten TrueTemper to draw 24mm stays for him.

repechage

I just double checked today, a full inch just before the fillet, squashed a bit for tire and chainring clearance. Beef, and Huge.

satbuilder 

I have one of these out in the barn, bought it several years ago, and there’s a ding in the stay. Not sure if it’s significant enough to warrant repair or replacement, but thought I’d ask about the origin of the stays.

Frame is a bit too small for me, and there are a lot of other projects in front of this one. Might be time to start downsizing a bit.

repechage

https://sandiego.craigslist.org/esd/...664599971.html

down San Diego way.

mpetry912 

if it's a minor ding I'd suggest filling it with brass and repaint. You will not have good luck doing a frame repair / stay replacement on a True Temper bike.

Tesch frames are cool and built for speed as the decal says.

/markp

BMC_Kid 

Here’s mine… as others have noted here and elsewhere, very beefy and stiff.



Some good photos of a replace chain stay on here…

https://www.ticycles.com/news/2020/1...989-tesch-s-22

repechage

Beef, my Masi 3V has 25mm chainstays, these are humongous.

bulgie 

Only track forkblades are 22 mm, and quite thick wall, thicker than any chainstays (1.4 mm in the case of 531, versus about .8 mm for stays)
Reynolds older, skinnier oval, that they called Continental, started out as about 23 mm (probably some fractional inch size)
The fatter oval we associate with Columbus, almost exactly the same as the current Reynolds "New Continental", starts out as 24 mm.
A 24 mm chainstay will not fit over the spigots of a lugged shell, its the same size as the spigots. You could make a butt joint but that's not what Tesch did. It takes 1" (25.4 mm) round tubes to fit over the spigots of a trad lugged shell for 7/8" c-stays.

Check out the pics from BMC_Kid , they show how the stays make a step down in diameter at the dropouts. Those are lugged dropouts, with sockets intended for the stays to go inside, but Tesch used such large stays that they fit over the sockets, just like at the BB. Amazing. Brilliant if you like 'em stiff. Too stiff for me, but I'm only a clydesdale sprinter who never won beyond Cat3 amateur.

I made steel sprint frames for Ken Carpenter who won USA Natz 4 or 5 years in a row, went to two Olympics ('88-'92), and turned pro. For his chainstays I used 1-1/8". He'd had custom frames from Masi and Serotta before mine, and he said mine was the first frame he ever rode that was stiff enough. Later he was on a team sponsored by Merlin, and he tried to like the frames they made for him, but they weren't even close to stiff enough. His review of their first attempt wouldn't be printable here. Then they made him one which they insisted was "twice as stiff" as the first one, and it still failed miserably. So he continued to ride mine, painted to look like titanium, with Merlin decals on it.

Sorry, I know I've told that story here before, I hope no one's getting sick of hearing it. I sure ain't!

Mark B

repechage

Way back the narrow 531 blades we called Imperial Oval, and the later near Columbus shape as Continental oval.

somewhere another brand of Italian tubing had a fork blade with the same width as Columbus but tighter leading and trailing edge radii.
I have two Masi with those. 80’s Prestige era.


the 24mm round PS blades up front definitely felt stiffer.

mech986 

Funny you guys mentioned this. Last week, my brother went to a local Redondo Beach estate sale, it was for Henry James, the frame builder and lug supplier. There were still boxes of lugs, BB’s, loose True Temper Tubing, stays, and fork tubes I think, some in “kits” but not all complete. I understand he closed down in 2020 so some of his supply stocks would have been moved already.

I wonder if there was anything left that could help with repairs or retubing?



Lugs and stuff

True Temper Tubing

more tubing and fork tubing?

Dropouts

Henry James investment cast fork crown, a beauty

bottom bracket, raw.

Parts of a frame Alignment jig

bulgie 

Do you have any documentation of that? I'm curious to know how that idea got started because I've never seen any oval called "Imperial" in any Reynolds catalogs. I have always assumed it was just something some bikie made up and it stuck.

The only actual Reynolds documentation of blade oval names I have found calles the old skinny oval "Continental", and the fat one "New Continental Oval". We called it NCO for short.




That's from the '78 catalog. The next previous one I have is '75, and there was no NCO then — the fat oval hadn't been introduced yet.

Yes Continental oval meaning fat is well-established now in bikie jargon, but if you want to be excruciatingly correct (i.e. if you want to confuse people, rather than communicate ), it means the old skinny oval. At least according to Reynolds.

Mark B, the jargon nazi

repechage

[MENTION=204995]mech986[/MENTION] - was that not hank Folsom?
I recall him coming in to the bike shop way back, like 1974, with a wax pattern for a crown, one I only once saw as a part, it was best described like something from CCM, very plain and anti style.

lots of useful parts there.

I do not have any written documentation regarding the term Imperial oval, Bob Jackson knew the term and so did the Raleigh rep way back, when the SB frames came out they brought one by hoping to drum up sales, there was quite a discussion about the New Continental Oval vs the typical Imperial Oval cross section blades. Made sense to me as Reynolds was from the UK, and ruled by the Queen.

unterhausen

Did I miss Henry James passing away?
I think that's right, Henry James was not actually his name.