Lugs
- Lugs strengthen the frame at the joints
- Lugs allow brazing, which we believe is the kindest, gentlest way to join tubes, and certainly the one which allows the easiest tube replacements.
- Lugs are interesting to look at, and over the years there have been hundreds of styles, some proprietary, some generic, some plain, some intricate, many just plain beautiful. All lugs are interesting. When you look at a frame joint formed with lugs, there's something to look at.
Lugs used to be the preferred way to build fine bicycle frames. Then makers discovered tig-welds, and almost overnight (considering the long, 90-year reign of lugs, the 6-year period between about 1981 and 1987 constitutes overnight), tig-welding took over. It is a strong way to join tubes. It is efficient. It has proven its merit thousands of times over. A body can appreciate a good tig-weld, and should appreciate the skills that go into it. But a lug is a lug, and a tig-weld ain't.
All of our lugs are proprietary, meaning they're ours alone. Two hundred years from now, any of our frames will be identifiable even if it's stripped of paint, rusted and crusty and covered in cobwebs in your great great great great great great great granddaughter's attic, or strangled in ivy as a cherished decoration in her garden. Or, she could be riding it, too. The frames are made that well, and as far as rust goes, these days it's a cinch to absolutely prevent rust forever, period. A