Originally Posted by Jeff Wills

Somehow this discussion got hijacked into the realm of 753 and other high-end custom frames.

As a mechanic who cut his teeth repairing hundreds of those mass-produced bikes in the early ‘80’s the answer is: we weren’t looking that closely. As long as the wheels turned and the gears shifted, the bike was going out the door. Pry apart the dropouts to mount the wheel? Sure! The customer probably won’t be removing the wheel themselves anyway.

This was also long before indexed shifting, so derailleur hanger alignment wasn’t all that important. If the derailleur was visibly bent, we bent it back with a Crescent wrench, adjusted the stops, and called it good.

That Traveler and that Ross probably weren’t checked that closely when new.