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?

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.