Nervex professional lugs

The Professional though was a classic design destined to succeed from the day it was introduced.  The lug just looked right, beautifully cut with pleasing lines and not needing to be over-elaborate as some lugs could be. Also, these pressed-steel lugs were relatively light and well finished, apparently needing less filing and cleaning-up than some of the cast steel designs available at the time.

Frame builders took to it at once and more importantly, so did the public. Part of its success can be attributed to Nervex lugs being chosen by many of the top frame builders and racers on the continent; Louison Bobet reportedly won the 1950 French Road National Championship on a Stella frame built with a Nervex Pro lugset. Naturally, the Brits wanted the same equipment on their machines.

The Different Types

The first Nervex Pro lugs were produced with a vary fine pair of ‘horns’ at the centre-front of the two head lugs. Later on the lugs were changed slightly and the ‘horns’ (left) were replaced by a ‘fishtail’ (right). This newer design was certainly in use by 1955 although the earlier style was still used by some frame makers for some time after, presumably because lugs were often bought in boxes of 50 or more, and these would take time to be used up.
Nervex developed and produced their range of lugs in the post- WWII years, late 40s, but the first time they were imported to the UK seems to be around 1950.

Other changes amongst different frame makers centre on modifications to the lugs themselves. Clearly, the more highly-regarded frame makers would not want their own products to be the same as anyone elses. In order to achieve this they would often modify Nervex Pro lugs either by cutting away parts or making ‘windows’ in the lugs (such as the Ephgrave No 2 lugs), or by adding spearpoints or other shapes (Holdsworth used this technique on certain models).

The Nervex Professional was produced with a strenghtening rib at the top and bottom edge of the headlugs.  This rim can be seen on the lugs to the right (Bates).
Several framebuilders considered this an unnecessary feature and felt that it detracted from the simplicity of the lug.   When a frame is well built the top and bottom faces of the head lugs are ‘faced’ to give perfect alignment to the bearings.

The other is a “D/B. Randonneur Feature Cut No. 7” (left) “Sport and Tourist” fork crown; it is noted in text as ½ Ballon (wide head) and being for oval fork blades.   The Sport version of the Feature Cut No. 7 fork crown is also sixty millimeters between fork blades but the Tourist version of the Feature Cut No. 7 fork crown is 68 millimeters between the fork blades, seemingly for wider tyre and/or mudguard clearance.  It is assumed from the use of the word “Professional” that the Professional Racing Feature Cut No. 5 fork crown is exclusive to the Professional lug set. The D/B Randonneur Feature Cut No. 7 fork crown is displayed among several fork crown patterns in this catalogue and it is assumed that it is not exclusive to the Professional lug set due to the lack of the word “Professional” and its “Sport and Tourist” designation.

Building a frame with the Nervex lugs by Norris Lockley (including some history of the origins)

I am/was a framebuilder and I still do have several full sets of these lugs in stock so I am always interested in seeing what other builders think of them and how they have adapted them. This article is sent to add a little bit of the historical background to the company and the development of the Series Mk1 and II of the Nervex Pro set.

In the late 40s and early 50s most British framebuilders relied upon cast lugs with which to build their frames. These could be from English manufacturers such as Vaughan, Davis, Brampton, Chater Lea etc or from European manufacturers such as Aerts, or EKLA. As the European economy picked up after WWII supplies of more modern lugs started to be imported, most of which were made from precision pressings of mild steel plate by a process called “emboutissage”. Amongst the very first of these, and very popular with builders, were the excellent Oscar Egg “Super Champion” models. By about 1953 builders such as JRJ in Leeds (later to become Bob Jackson cycles) were also offering the Nervex range of lugs as an option to these other brands. JRJ also offered, as did several other builders that I know of, the Franco-Suisse range.

I started helping a frame-builder in about 1953/54 and up until that time I had not heard of Nervex lugs, but was aware of Franco-Suisse. My recent research, as demonstrated by the Franco-Suisse advert, from February 1950 (see image left), indicates that in fact the two brands were one and the same, Franco-Suisse, a firm in St Etienne, France, being the manufacturer, and Nervex being the brand of lugs that it manufactured.It would appear from further research that Ste Franco-Suisse either sold out to, or changed its name to Francolam, the name that appears on the box of lugs in the main Nervex article, and on the cover of the much-quoted and referred-to Nervex lug and parts catalogue for 1957.

Although the Nervex Pro MkII lug set, with its fish-tail design, has proven popular for the best part of fifty years, the fork crown, with its two short prongs, has not caught cyclists’ imaginations to the same extent. It is only in the last ten years that I have actually bought some of these crowns as NOS, and so I have no idea how much they cost originally. My own theory about their lack of popularity is that the crown was an early pressed model made by Franco-Suisse, to match up with the head lugs of the Pro MkI lugset, that also had two short spikey prongs. Whether or not what is now referred to as the Nervex Pro Mk I lugset was actually at the time known as the Franco-Suisse, I can only conjecture. Perhaps the Nervex Pro Mk II with the fish-tail feature was the first lug produced by Francolam and marketed under the Nervex name. I doubt that we will ever know the full story