True Temper tubing
Yoram Finder
Hi,
Does anybody out there know if True Temper tubes (OXIII) are seamless ?
Is there a web site for True Temper ?.
Thanks.
Zupergee
None of True Temper's tubing is seamless. They claim it's just as good but
I don't buy it.
Gordon Schuck
Paradox Metalworks Custom Frames and Stems
http://members.aol.com/zupergee/
Kristan Roberge
Now there's something I had not heard before. Course I've never been
a fan of TrueTemper tubing anyways.
The.Den
I had a mountian bike frame made from true Temper OXIII tubes but it
snapped at the welds at the head tube / down tube / top tube area... I
could see that the tubes were indeed seamed. However I don't believe
that the reason my frame broke was because of poor tubing but rather
poor welds. Also I found that they were a little on the heavy side...I
like my Tange Ultimte Ultralight frame much better. have no idea if
they are seamed or not though.
...James
John Thompson
>zupe...@aol.com (Zupergee) wrote:
It's true. One of the ways they keep their costs down is by
using seamed tubing. After forming it into tubes, they draw it
though dies to rework the seam. They claim this makes it
functionally equivalent to seamless tubing, and for what it's
worth I haven't seen TT tubing fail at the seam (indeed, it's
often impossible to even find it).
-John (John.T...@ibm.net)
Richard J. Moffat
Zupergee wrote:
>
> None of True Temper's tubing is seamless. They claim it's just as good but
> I don't buy it.
>
I didn't know this tidbit. I have a Fat City (Chris Chance) road bike
and a Team Chance MTB. They are both made with proprietary True Temper
tubesets made specifically for Chance and they're rugged and ride
great...seamed or not..and are very light for steel bikes...especially
the Road frame...which also has an incredibly light but stiff fork.
Anybody know if Fat City's tubesets are seamed? Based on ride quality
and durability..I would say it doesn't matter(?)
Rick
Gregory Sutter
>Zupergee wrote:
>>
>> None of True Temper's tubing is seamless. They claim it's just as good but
>> I don't buy it.
>
>I didn't know this tidbit. I have a Fat City (Chris Chance) road bike
>and a Team Chance MTB. They are both made with proprietary True Temper
>tubesets made specifically for Chance and they're rugged and ride
>great...seamed or not..and are very light for steel bikes...especially
>the Road frame...which also has an incredibly light but stiff fork.
I may be getting a KHS Pro, which uses True Temper OX III tubing. Does
anyone have any information or know where I can get information on this
tubing?
Thanks
GReg
--
Gregory S. Sutter "How do I read this file?"
gsu...@pobox.com "You uudecode it."
http://www.pobox.com/~gsutter/ "I I I decode it?"
Jeff Dantzler
"Richard J. Moffat" <usn0...@interramp.com> writes:
[RE: seamed TT tubes viewed as inferior]
>I didn't know this tidbit. I have a Fat City (Chris Chance) road bike
>and a Team Chance MTB. They are both made with proprietary True Temper
>tubesets made specifically for Chance and they're rugged and ride
>great...seamed or not..and are very light for steel bikes...especially
>the Road frame...which also has an incredibly light but stiff fork.
>Anybody know if Fat City's tubesets are seamed? Based on ride quality
>and durability..I would say it doesn't matter(?)
I own two Yo Eddys at least one of which is made from a custom-drawn
OX3 TT tubeset. Yes, the tubes are seamed, but are they inferior ?
Anyone who has ever riden or known someone who rides any Fat Chance
bike knows that these bikes have a magical ride quality. Furthermore,
I recall reading about a frame fatigue test in which the testers
had to take an OX3 (not necessarily Fat) frame off the machine
because it would not break (sorry for the missing ref, I think it
was an old VeloNews). I disagree that the frames are light however.
At a few ounces shy of five pounds, my medium Yo Eddy is fully a
pound heavier than say a Bonty RaceLite. However, I am a light
finesse ride and fully expect to get a decade plus out of these
frames. The Yo Eddy fork is a work of functional art and is quite
light at 1.5 or 1.75 lb. (depending on whether its heat-treated).
My conclusions: I love my Yo Eddys. I think that Chris Chances'
expert ability to come up with geometry that works coupled with
a solid and IMHO, high quality tubeset makes one of the best
hardtails out there, period.
-Jeff
--
Jeff Dantzler dant...@u.washington.edu
Donovan F. Kehrer
>
> It's true. One of the ways they keep their costs down is by
> using seamed tubing. After forming it into tubes, they draw it
> though dies to rework the seam. They claim this makes it
> functionally equivalent to seamless tubing, and for what it's
> worth I haven't seen TT tubing fail at the seam (indeed, it's
> often impossible to even find it).
>
> -John (John.T...@ibm.net)
Sounds like the same method Columbus uses to make their 25CroMor4 tubing
which includes tubing labeled Cromor, Gara and Thron. See the Torelli
web site at www.torelli.com. According to the Torelli site, to make this
tubing, Columbus electro-welds a cromor billet into a thick tube shape
and then draws the tube to create frame size tubing.
Joshua_Putnam
In <5p14ql$t...@nntp5.u.washington.edu> dant...@u.washington.edu (Jeff Dantzler) writes:
>There was a nice article in VeloNews probably threeish years ago in
>the tech section. They describe the whole manufacturing process.
>One neat thing about the TT tubes is that they end up with some
>kind of coating on the inside that discourages rust.
Lots of tubing makers used to ship their tubes with corrosion
inhibitor inside and out to avoid rust in shipping and storage.
Basically Cosmoline or something similar. Plain 4130 tubing
still usually comes that way -- no idea why other bike tube
companies have stopped doing that. On one hand it's nice to be
able to avoid stripping all the gunk off for brazing; on the
other it's a pain to have to oil my spare tubing when I'm not
going to use it for a while. (Maybe they dropped it as a favor
to larger-volume frame manufacturers who don't keep it around
long enough to rust?)
--
Jo...@WolfeNet.com is Joshua Putnam / P.O. Box 13220 / Burton, WA 98013
"My other bike is a car."
http://www.wolfenet.com/~josh
Jeff Dantzler
gsu...@pobox.com (Gregory Sutter) writes:
>I may be getting a KHS Pro, which uses True Temper OX III tubing. Does
>anyone have any information or know where I can get information on this
>tubing?
There was a nice article in VeloNews probably threeish years ago in
the tech section. They describe the whole manufacturing process.
One neat thing about the TT tubes is that they end up with some
kind of coating on the inside that discourages rust.
-Jeff
--
Jeff Dantzler dant...@u.washington.edu
Joshua_Putnam
>Sounds like the same method Columbus uses to make their 25CroMor4 tubing
>which includes tubing labeled Cromor, Gara and Thron. See the Torelli
>web site at www.torelli.com. According to the Torelli site, to make this
>tubing, Columbus electro-welds a cromor billet into a thick tube shape
>and then draws the tube to create frame size tubing.
That's the same way welded mechanical steel tubing is made --
welded then drawn over a mandrel. See rec.crafts.metalworking
for more info.
PGobat8203
>>Does anybody out there know if True Temper tubes (OXIII) are >>seamless
?
>>Is there a web site for True Temper ?
Virtually every tube made for bicycle frame manufacture is seamless. One
of the exceptions that I am aware of is Beryllium alloy, which due to the
lack of strength in one direction has to be made into sheet and welded
into tubes.
Paul
pgoba...@aol.com
Troy A. Courtney
*ALL* of TrueTemper's tubesets are seamed, however, I've not been able to
find the seam in any set I've worked with. Their brochure has a fairly
interesting discussion on seamed tubing and what they do with it. My frame
is built out of their plain-jane RC2 stress-relieved ChroMoly. My wifes is
the heat treated RCX2, which is light and strong (3.3lbs for a 53TT/51.5ST
frame with Henry James lugs and drop-outs).
TrueTemper doesn't have a website that I'm aware of but you can get their
information from HenryJames @310-540-1552.
--
----- __o
---- -\<,
_____ (_) / (_) _____
tr...@synergetic.com
Yoram Finder <yo...@tavosf.iso.dec.com> wrote in article
<01bc7fdc$e8374440$ab40...@yoramf.iso.dec.com>...
> Hi,
>
> Does anybody out there know if True Temper tubes (OXIII) are seamless ?
> Is there a web site for True Temper ?.
>
> Thanks.
>
>
Zupergee
Frame design has more to do with how a frame 'feels' than seamed tubing.
In truth , you can't 'feel' a seamed tube even if you wanted to. The
question is durability. A seam in the tube creates a weakness from square
one. If it's really as good, then why does everyone else in the industry
use a more expensive extrusion process?
Fennelly
Hype?
Richard J. Moffat
hi,
the thread re: True Temper's tubing being seamed got me to wondering;
anybody out there with enough real metallurgical knowledge to comment on
the seamed vs. non-seamed thing? Seamed tubes tend to be of the low(er)-
tech variety (Thron, Chromor, True Temper OX, etc...) which is heavier
than the high-zoot stuff - and I wonder if it's the weight penalty and
lack of cachet that gave seamed tubing it's bad rap.
On the titanium side...all of these new "blade"-style downtube bikes
like the Bianchi Megatubo and the Lightspeed Ultimate are obviously using
seamed tubing..but all you hear is raves about what great performers they
are. They would be lightweight..so there's that weight factor thing
again..
What gives?
Rick