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@clubman
This frame has been generously lent by my clubmate Ron Richardson who bought it new in 1951. He tells me that at the time he would have preferred to have 'Fleur de Lys' lugs, but couldn't afford it. He has recently acquired such a frame, had it resprayed and now, 61 years later, hopes to have it on the road soon.
The chain rings here are 43/46. This will seem bizarre to modern eyes, but 43 is the smallest size which the TA adaptor can take and I'm expecting low gears to be more useful than high on the strada bianchi. The gearing arrangement is on the old system which has 2 tooth differences on the block and 3 teeth between the chain rings, allowing a change at the front to fill in the gaps in gearing between the 2 tooth jumps at the back. Using a 14-22 five block the gears (in inches) are: 87.3, 81.6, 76.4, 63.5, 61.1, 57.1, 55.6, and 51.9, which looks like a practical set of gears to me. It must be admitted that the arrangement has the disadvantage that a double change (i.e. both front and rear) is often necessary. The rear mech is known as a Simplex 'Tour de France' and this type was widely used in that event in the late forties and early fifties. It will accept a 22 tooth sprocket, but I think that is probably its limit.
The 'hand held' rear mech picture shows the gear in its working position, as intended by the makers. They are sometimes fitted with the jockey wheel cage upside down, possibly through ignorance or maybe in order to get the chain onto a bigger rear sprocket!
It will be interesting to see how practical a machine this turns out to be - I'm about to take it to Brittany, and I'm hoping the locals will think that I'm *sympa *(rather than just mad) using French kit.
I will post a series of pictures as separate posts.
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