In a message dated 4/30/02 4:56:03 PM Pacific Daylight Time, Wheelman@nac.net writes:
<< A secondary question. I see a lot of emphasis on 531 tubing almost like it is the Holy Grail of bike tubing. Yet I see that is has been around since 1935 and surely metallurgy has progressed since then so why the fascination with this tubing. >>
I'm sure some other people will have something to say on the matter but here
goes. Five-three-one is manganese molybdenum steel alloy. It is NOT chrome
moly like Columbus. The alloy is slightly more "elastic" than chrome moly. It
IS very high quality, specially drawn lightweight tubing, that when "double
butted" is light, yet reinforced at the joints to make a superior bicycle.
The bottom line is, any top quality steel, butted tubing, is essentially
similar. What makes a greater difference is what the gauge of the individual
tubes are, and what are the tapers of the forks and stays. These are the
things that a frame builder takes into account when designing a frame for a
particular application. This I heard from Albert Eisentraut almost 30 years
ago, and I still am in agreement with it. Caveat, I personally prefer
Columbus, although I'm looking at a frame I made with PS that has 5/8
Reynolds seat stays. The one Reynolds bike I had that I LOVED was my Cooper
track bike that was stolen during the Rodney King riots 10 years ago, this
week.
Stevan Thomas
Alameda, CA