New Platypus Lug

[CoalTrain]

Looks like the new run of Platy's are getting a lugged top/seat tube, where as the previous models were welded. Very nice.

[Joe Bernard]

Probably unpopular opinion but I like the original better. The way the mid-stays start in front of the seattube and wrap around it looks more elegant to me. 

Joe Bernard 

[DavidP]

A few photos for comparison. I like that on the previous frame the swoopy stays extend further forward (similar to what Joe said). I like that on the new frame the view from the above and below is less bulky.

-Dave

[Allan McLane]

Perhaps they dusted off the Betty Foy/Yves Gomez lug…

[Marc Irwin]

Cost was probably involved.  The fillet brazing on the original Platypus would be very time consuming and more difficult in a factory setting than connecting a few tubes with lug.

Marc

[Jason Fuller]

I hadn't noticed this! I liked the fillet brazed junction better too but it definitely looked like a pain in the butt to fabricate. The new lug (old lug - I am sure Allan's right) does have a clean and tidy look too.  A friend's Platy has a pretty noticeable blem in the brazing too, maybe evidence it was problematic for Maxway. 

[Ted W]

Gonna say I’m also more a fan on the fillet brazed variant but I can understand from a cost and production standpoint why they might have switched, lugs being easier to produce with less skill (relatively speaking). Shame, though. The fillet brazing on the Gus was one of the big attractions to me. It really enhances that swoopy, flowy look to me.

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[iamkeith]

Interesting how our tastes are so individual.  I greatly prefer the lugged joint.  I was looking at the pictures in the newsletter, without consciously noticing what had changed, and thinking to myself:  "why did I dismiss this model until now?  These are just about perfect."  Does anybody know if the bottom bracket shell is lugged?  Tigged?  Fillet brazed?

[DavidP]

Keith, the BB shell is lugged on the previous model. It's hard to see in most photos but the current Platypus page on the Riv site has a photo of a bare frame. I've attached a cropped portion of that image.

-Dave

[Brian Turner]

It’s a lug that could use a little something to make it look less klunky. I’m not a fan of the part that connects the stays… To me it looks like old plumbing fittings. If it were shaped a bit more elegantly, it would look so much better.

On Oct 9, 2023, at 7:51 AM, DavidP <dphi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Keith, the BB shell is lugged on the previous model. It's hard to see in most photos but the current Platypus page on the Riv site has a photo of a bare frame. I've attached a cropped portion of that image.

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<2022-platy-bb.png>

[Eric Marth]

DavidP and Keith: Methinks I see bb shell lug outlines through the cranks in the picture of the Sergio Green complete. 

[Ted W]

YES! I was having hard time figuring out why I didn’t like it. This is exactly it! I usually LOVE lugged frames, but this lug feel unfinished so o my eye. As I said before; the fillet made it flow and I think a similar flow could have been made here with a different shape. But the way the stays just plug in to the lug, like a plumbing fitting. It just doesn’t feel like it he same thought was put in to the look as a typical Riv.

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[iamkeith]

Thanks, David.  I suppose I could have looked harder.  That's really great too.  I think/hope this all just means they plan to keep the Platypus in the lineup for a while.  Going to the trouble of making the lugs, that is.  (Unless this is just a carryover from previous mixte models, as someone suggested.

As to the too- utilitarian look, maybe the sockets could resemble the OG Clem (abandoned big bike lugs, I believe), with a scallop and cutout.  (See pic.)  But then, we'd want the top of the seat stays to look the same.  Kind of a can of worms, I suspect, that could easily start to get too "fancy," and drive up costs.