In article <Wy6Dg.21048$MW.4624@trnddc04>,
"David Peake" <
[email protected]> wrote:
> Do I look for gaps in the lug work? With a tig welded frame, it's
> pretty obvious when it's quality work. I'm thinking of buying a
> custom lugged steel frame from Palermo Bicycles
> (http://www.palermobicycles.com/), but I don't know what to look for.
The only way to be sure is destructive testing, such as sawing through
the lugs in several places to inspect the penetration of the brazing
filler material into the lugs. But then the bike is unrideable, so
that's a method with limited utility. There is stuff that you mostly
can't see by looking at a built and painted frame- have the tubes been
overheated and are they oriented correctly.
You can inspect it from the outside, though and get some clues. Are the
lugs thinned towards the edges, so that there is not a thick edge
sticking up to concentrate stresses? Are there any gaps along the edges
of the lugs? Put your face against the tube and look towards the lugs-
are there any indications that the tubing distorted near the lug?
Look into the bottom bracket shell- have the tubes coming into the shell
been mitered to match the inner curve of the shell, and is there filler
material uniformly around the ends of the tubes? If the tubes are just
cut off square, that's an indicator that the builder is prone to taking
short cuts.
Look at the braze-ons and check if they are aligned properly. That'll
give you an idea of the care for detail the builder has.
Looking at the construction photos of some of the frames on his site, I
don't see anything that would scare me off.
