Hilary wrote, in part:
"Quite how who I have ridden with has anything to do with a discussion on the benefits 1 1/8in top tubes is beyond me. What is important however is the assertion by Frank that top British framebuilders consider the 1 1/8in TTs to be of no use. "
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...to which might be added: if OS top-tubes are not functionally different from 1" tubes, why did the Taylor bros build most of their tandems with OS top-tubes?
I can say from experience that, all other things being equal, OS top-tubes on tandems make a very large difference in handling and overall performance. You can make a 1" top-tubed tandem as stiff as OS--maybe--but only if you make said tandem very, very short on the sections and wheelbase, as Pogliaghi did with those abominable Columbus tandem tube-sets. Pogliaghi may have been the only person to build useable tandems with that tube-set. Sure would have been fun to see what he would have done with a nice Reynolds OS tube set with ovalized boob-tube. It would have been interesting to ask him to build a tandem with the stuff. I wonder what he would have said to that?
Charles "too many tandems for our, or anyone's, good" Andrews Socal
"The deeper I go in considering the vanities of popular reasoning, the lighter and more foolish I find them."
--Galileo Galilei