I was given one of these tube sets by my friend Doug Huttwagner who at the time was a sales rep for Security Bicycle Accessories (SBA). I used it to build a track - kilo / pursuit "funny" bike with a 650 front wheel. It was ridden by Mark Young to a top 10 finish at the Junior Nats. It came with lugs that I could not use because of the geometry. I fillet brazed it. I did use the crown. The tubes were very heavy and were not butted. Before I built it I went nuts looking for a seat post. The few people who knew what I was talking about informed me that it is very difficult to find and the fair market value was $200. This was 10 years ago. My search ended with Ross Shaefer of Salsa fame. Ross had an Ishiwata aero tube set from that same 1980/81 aero craze. His tube set came with a seat post. The profile of the Tange tube was different from the Ishiwata. Ross, being one of the nicest people in the world, gave me the seat post and the seat tube. The Tange seat lug had a very nice binder system using a single bolt that would bear against the post via a gib. I was forced to improvise. My seat binder is the same design but lacking the gib so the bolt tends to dig into the post. The seat post that came with the Ishiwata is really low quality. I always thought that I would rework this frame one day with a better seat post and binder system. I still have the Tange seat tube as well as the lugs.
Jamie gotta go open the shop now wish I was goin for a ride instead Swan
In a message dated 6/19/01 5:31:23 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> Hilary.Stone@Tesco.net writes:
>
> << NOS Sugino Aero Mighty aero shaped seatpin marked for Tange
tubing. I
> presume this is from the early 1980s but which tubing set. >>
>
> Tange brought out an aero bike tubing set specifically to be in
partnership
> with the Shimano Ax components. I am sure that is the tubing intended
to
> receive that seat post of yours. (Jerry Moos was looking for something
like
> that a few months ago!)
>
> I remember in 1981, Tange sent two sets of this tubing, complete with
lugs,
> to select frame builders all around the USA (and beyond?) They
requested
> that the builders make bicycles in their own style and present them at
the
> New York International bike show. My friend McLean Fonvielle (Silk
Hope &
> McLean marques.) received these tube sets, but he didn't like them
much (he
> was very conservative!) and never used them. I later inherited them
and built
> a time trial bike from one set.. (It, with some small help from a
certain Mr.
> Chris Blake, won the NC State TT championship that year!)
>
> The tubing is pretty clunky.. IF it is butted, it must have started as
a
> thick gauge! The Onion River /Shimano team of that same era had 14
special
> Tomasinis built with that tubing and I have one of the team bikes
today. In
> my Shimano AX page, there is a picture taken by Mike Richardson in
1982 of
> Wayne Stetina and David Ware, riding these aero tubed AX equipped
> Tomasinis... The word was that Irio Tomasini said he would never use
that
> tubing again!