You make a great point, Todd. My wife has always complained about her '78 Paramount. It's the smallest framesize, but does not use light-guage 531 tubing. At 110 lbs., she would be much better served by a lighter frame that had a little more flex in it. As it is, the bike rides a bit like a concrete block, even with the fattest sewups. In this case, Schwinn knew that as long as they used Reynold's tubing, there was no point in complicating their inventory and production by trying to match the tubing to the rider's likely size. Actually, with Scwinn's reputation for ruggedness and their guarantee, they probly would have stuck with the conservative approach anyway. Still, this one-size-fits-all approach is not one any competent framebuilder would use.
--Steve Barner, Bolton, Vermont
used
> on 12/22/03 9:46 PM, Stephen Barner at steve@sburl.com wrote:
>
> > Still, I don't see
> > why that is any reason not to ride the best bike I can afford, if that's
> > where my interest lies.
>
> I think that the point that some are making here is that the selection of
> tubing has little to do with "the best bike." If you are 250 pounds, a
> frame built with 0.7/0.4 tubing is a poor choice no matter what the label
> says.
>
> The tubing should be appropriate for the purpose. A frame for loaded
> touring should use different tubing than a frame designed for a 135-pound
> racer.
>
> I once spoke to a product manager at Bianchi about a Reparto Corse frame
> that one of our customers owned. It was a 59 cm frame made from Columbus
EL
> (not EL-OS). The customer complained that the frame was too flexy. The
> product manager agreed. Unfortunately, the company had decided to use the
> same lightweight tubeset for all frame sizes, but anyone large enough for
a
> 59 cm (or larger) frame would be too heavy for it.
>
> So, why did the company make EL frames in size 59 and larger? Because the
> market demanded it. This same manager confessed that their new 2-pound
> aluminum frames were ideal for Marco Pantani (someone who weighs 130
pounds
> or less and never carries any gear AND gets a new frame every year if not
> more often), but not for the general public that was buying it. You can
> read numerous accounts on the internet of riders weighing 220 pounds
> cracking these frames in the first year.
>
> So, why does Bianchi sell them? Because the market wants them, and if
they
> don't sell them, someone else will. That 220 pound rider wants "the best
> bike that he can afford" so he buys an expensive 2-pound frame. However,
> that frame, as expensive and high-tech as it might be, is a very poor
choice
> for that rider.
>
> Cost and tubing technology do not make one frame better than another.
>
> Todd Kuzma
> Heron Bicycles
> Tullio's Big Dog Cyclery
> LaSalle, IL
> http://www.heronbicycles.com/
> http://www.tullios.com/