Columbus Aelle vs. Cromor
Nigel Paul Ayoung-Chee
What is the difference between Columbus Aelle & Cromor tubing?
I was told that the main difference was that Aelle was the heavier
(and presumably the cheaper) of the two. Is Tensor also similar
in quality?
One last question, I saw a bike made with Aelle (a Cramerotti)
with RX100's and Mavic 192's. What surprised me was that it was
seemed approx. as light as a similarly equipped Specialized Allez.
The store owner claimed that this is typical of hand-made bikes
(the cramerotti). Is this true? Given that everything else is equal
Does the method of contruction make that much of a difference?
Thanks for any answers.
Nigel
William Kellagher
I don't think the method of construction directly effects the weight of the bike,
but it might do so indirectly. Someone building a bike by hand will have better
control of the brazing process than a machine and so will feel more confident
in using lighter materials. Heavier tubing allows a more heavy handed approach.
This being said though, in reality both the Italian (cramerotti?) and the
Specialized frames are probably machine built be they Italian machines or
Taiwanese mahcines, and if not are probably built by some low wage production
workers.
Columbus Aelle is regular old high carbon steel with a fancy label attached.
Columbus Cromor is a high strength chrome moly steel, the same as that in
the more expensive Columbus SL, SLX etc. The difference is that Cromor is
seamed and the more expensive stuff isn't. The walls are also slightly thicker
in Cromor, making it slightly heavier that the high priced spread.
Bill Kellagher
Boulder Colorado
America's Bicycling Theme Park
******* Speaking for myself, not StorageTek ******