Help ID this fork on a kessels bike
 

Posted recently about a 1970s Kessels. Feedback from folks who know about these bikes suggests the fork may not be original. The inside of the fork crown (triangle cut) doesn't match the expected 2 holes for a 3rd generation Kessels: https://www.dcisite.be/en/dci-news/K...ow-to-identify.

Attributes consistent with Kessels: Reynolds (based on sticker), likely original chrome and Campagnolo dropouts. The bike was based in Belgium until recently and prior owner bought it this way.

Any thoughts? One-off fork from Kessels, maybe another Belgian brand (Flandria), something else altogether?

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1e77310635.jpg
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b1e9982eb3.jpg

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...323ba9af37.jpg

front, back and sides resemble this model of NERVEX Professional but it is illustrated without the blade reinforcements, possible they may be additions...more likely another model...

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Thanks. Interesting. Maybe a link with Flandria . . .

^could be, or some other Benelux brand,...check if the steerer is metric

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our framebuilder members should be able to definitively identify the crown straightaway -

bulgie Doug Fattic



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Cool. That should help in narrowing down. It's purely curiosity at this point :)

The Nervex crown juvela shows is hollow, made of sheet metal wrapped around and welded. Sounds cheap but it's an exceptionally light and strong crown, I have never seen one fail.
The mystery crown is forged solid, no hollow section. Also strong, but not as light. I have made a few forks with that crown, circa 1980, but I don't remember for sure what they were called. The name Vitus is floating up in the Magic 8-ball of my mind, but don't put much weight behind that, I have low confidence that it's right. Vitus (Ateliers de la Rive) of course mostly made frame tubes (prior to the glued aluminum frames), and if they distributed a crown it would have been made by another contractor anyway.

I do know the tangs down the inside of the blades were separate pieces, with just a butt joint with the rest of the crown. Generally just brazed at the same time as the crown-to-blades, any gap filled in with braze and filed smooth after.

Thanks. Interesting. Do Campagnolo dropouts indicate anything about the fork "quality"? (e.g. were they found more often on higher end/race frames vs. cheaper frames.)

Yes, they were the only real game in town, literally owned the market for years, they were on some lesser bikes as well for a long time. ;)

Thanks. Good to know.

certainly a fork made with 531 blades, a quality crown with reinforcing tangs and Campy ends iplus fully chrome-plated indicates a high grade fork. Maybe not the quality you'd get frrom a custom builder but for a production fork in Benelux? pretty darn good

Thanks. You answered my underlying question, which was how much of a "downgrade" is the fork. Obviously, having the original is better but I don't feel it's a big deal.