[Simon Painter]

Oh Dear – I am putting together an old F frame Safari-a-like, the forks of which I have used on several Moulton F frame builds – but now I’m having second thoughts about the issue I’ve read and heard about. I’ve been told that there was a batch of front forks that had inadequate brazing at the join at the base of the serrated section. I’ve been peering nervously at this area tonight and I certainly can’t see bronze-coloured braze all the way round – only in 2 patches front and back – what should I do??
I imagine I should be able to see a complete ring of bright braze, but I’m thinking central-heating experience here – it’s nice to see a bright ring of solder all round the circumference of a joint, but if you can’t see it all round it doesn’t mean the joint’s not a good ‘un… never-the-less I’m worried – any advice?

[Patrick Doocey]

Hi Simon, I’ll leave the expert advice to the actual experts 🙂

I’m in a similar situation with a set of forks from an early deluxe. I can’t see enough braze to assure me that they’re good. I’m thinking they could be sent to Mike Woolf at Moulton Preservation. I’m sure he could make an expert judgement on whether they’re ok, and if not, either arrange for the MP brazer to fix them (if this can be done), or replace them with a good pair. It’s not the cheapest route, but I think it would give me the most peace of mind.

[Simon Painter]

Hmm, I was thinking along the same lines – the forks taking a trip to Chelsea to see Michael 😮 These forks have been modified – canti bosses added about 15 years ago… I’ve used them on-an-off for hundreds of miles! Wot a dilemma.

[kenneth buttterfield]

Michael Woolf is certainly the man to ask as he has so much experience of the bikes and what can fail after decades of use…personally I have only come across one set of failed front fork, and this was supported only by the brake bolt…did it fail while being ridden at speed?….dont think so…but possible kerb damage….ken

[Martyn Aldis]

This topic has been worked over on the Yahoo list including the report of one fairly recent high speed failure resulting in injury. My failed set had been used for many years and apparently went on being ridden down a kerb – mild misuse. My pictures are available at once to anyone on that list or on request to me.

The early type with the brazed-on retainer for the bellows have a couple of dabs of braze for the retainer and this can make it more difficult to assess the important joint. I am curious to know just how far the braze did run on the unsafe looking set from my 63 standard. I will grind off the crown and have a look some day. Not today though as it’s raining cats and dogs.

On my broken set the braze had hardly run up the joint to any extent and the column failed at the brake bolt hole.

[Simon Painter]

I’ve been sitting here worrying about the whole issue, but after a while the penny dropped in that I’m sure that the forks came fitted to a series 2 – certainly the bike had (has – I’ve still got the rest of the frame…) series 2 rear forks and the seatpost turned through 90 degrees (so the long axis is across the line of the bike), but of course that doesn’t mean the forks I got with it were the original forks – Oooh Err wot a worry!!
I’ll repeat the compass-point test as I came across an old Helix geometry set at the week-end 🙂

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