Tubing Grades

[cycl...@gmail.com]

I was of the opinion that Thron tubing was one of the lower grades.

But recently I read an old article that had tests of all of the Columbus tube in frames that were all similar in several different sizes and by a variety of different size riders.

Oddly enough ALL of the riders preferred the bikes made from Thron tubing.

Now I believe that Thron and Reynolds 531 were virtually identical.

Has anyone had experience with this?

My Basso and Eddy Merckx are both made from Columbus SLX though the Basso tubing is a little larger diameter than the Eddy. These bikes assembled are about 2 lbs difference from my C40 was assembled with the same components.

The ride of the steel is better than the CF or Al bikes which are far too stiff.

But as of about six months ago virtually all bike sales of upper level bikes ceased in this area and I suspect elsewhere as well. There is still some sales of 29ers but otherwise nada.

[AMuzi]

Thron is CrMo (not Cyclex) butted tube material so
technically not composed of the same alloy mix as Reynolds
531. Then again, Ishiwata Reynolds SuperVitus Columbus and
Tange popular top end materials of the era were roughly
similar as a group[1] - distinguished both by slightly
different actual composition and of course advertising.

That said, commonly used Thron gauges were thicker which
means rider perception is correct about stiffness and
probably influenced by less noise/vibration/resonance too.

[1] mostly steel with comparable alloying elements, similar
shapes, cleanliness and temper. The outliers (super thin
gauges, highly tempered) are outliers.

--
Andrew Muzi
<www.yellowjersey.org/>
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

[Gregory Sutter]

On 2016-10-22, cycl...@gmail.com <cycl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I was of the opinion that Thron tubing was one of the lower grades.
>
> But recently I read an old article that had tests of all of the Columbus tube in frames that were all similar in several different sizes and by a variety of different size riders.

Tom,

You may be interested in this test:
http://www.habcycles.com/m7.html

...and this list:
http://astrocycloalpine.weebly.com/columbus-steel-tubesets.html

--
Gregory S. Sutter Mostly Harmless
mailto:gsu...@zer0.org
http://zer0.org/~gsutter/

[cycl...@gmail.com]

My Eddy Merckx Corsa Extra and my Basso Loto are both SLX and the Basso has larger tubes. But the Eddy definitely feels stiffer due to the geometry. But the Basso is a much better ride which goes where you point it. The Eddy does as well but with some worry about it jumping off-line on a bump. I did 50 miles Thursday and another 50 miles Sunday on the Basso and while I can definitely feel the slower climbing from a carbon bike the ride of the Basso is so much better that I couldn't care less that it climbs slightly slower.