Columbus vs reynolds 531

I feel like titanium is a good choice for bicycles -- a good mix of strength, stiffness, and weight, and super longevity. For me, though, the only drawback is purely aesthetic -- I just can't get excited about welds -- I love the look of a nicely lugged frame.

I know that an expertly welded frame has a lot going for it, and some people even like the "industrial" looking quality. I simply prefer the look of lugs. But you won't hear me gripe about titanium the way I do about carbon fiber. For what it's worth, you can purchase a Pashley Clubman made of traditional lugged and brazed Reynolds tubing with investment cast lugs.

I believe here in the states, it can be ordered from Universales Cycles. Brazing does different things vs welding and what happens varies quite a lot with the steel you are dealing with. Often you will see both things happen in a single weld HAZ. Most tubing manufacturers skate over this, but post-joining strengths are usually way down on 'as received values.

Reynolds witter on about 'air hardening' etc and in truth there may be some cleverness in the microalloying in some of their steels but the reality is that the HAZ is utterly banjaxed vs the original state of the steel. I have seen several frames crack in the HAZ. Same goes for other similar steels from other manufacturers.

Arguably the approach taken with was is the correct one; if brazed correctly it retains a high proportion of its pre-joining strength and doesn't appear to be made unduly brittle or anything. Similar benefits can of course be had in and tubing if that is silver brazed at low temperatures too, BTW. Bought new from PA Bikes long ago don't recall when.

Nice light, responsive bike. Very stiff, yet comfy ride. Top tube I built an Ultegra bike based around a SL Kalkhoff professional frame.

Total bike weight is 21 lbs including saddle and pedals. I weigh lbs and frame is plenty strong, not much flex. Ride is good but still fairly stiff. I have an old Carlton Corsair that has more compliant ride, but weights about 27 lbs. I also ride a Zurich About same weight as Kalkoff and similar ride.

Nothing beats the Carlton, but it is a bit heavy. Saturday, December 28, Reynolds Classic Tubes. Look at great bikes from the classic era, and one thing you'll find on many of them is a little sticker announcing the manufacturer of the tubing used in the frame.

And for a long time, more often than not, chances are that little sticker said "Guaranteed Built With Reynolds Reynolds invented the process for butted tubing in and went on to found the Patented Butted Tube Company -- later renamed Reynolds Tube Co. Over the decades, the Reynolds name became virtually synonymous with quality bicycles. The technical process of butting tubing is more than I want to get into in this article and can be found elsewhere pretty easily for those who are interested, but it essentially boils down to making tubing with a varied wall thickness -- where the tubing is thicker at the ends where more strength is needed, but thinner in the middle section to reduce weight.

Many riders believe that butting also improves ride quality, resulting in a more "lively" ride, though that's a little harder to quantify.

Gunnar Berg December 29, at AM. Mark Stonich December 30, at PM. Brooks December 30, at PM. Peter Stock December 31, at PM. I was and still am slightly confused — there is a lot of steel out there, chromoly , reynolds from to , columbus thron to spirit — so I have googled, pilfered, condensed and accumulated some of the findings. I am no expert — for more info click on links. They follow after explanation roughly in order of strength, rarity and of course price.

Steel ensures high performance at really low weights. The new alloys give a weight close to that of the aluminum alloys , together with a perfectly balancable elastic response, that is appreciated in particular on long rides.

Unlike aluminum, steel is substantially stable over time , not requiring onerous maintenance cycles. If properly rust-treated, under normal conditions of use, it has almost unlimited fatigue resistance. It allows frames to be built with excellent performances, rigid yet comfortable, suitable for any type of use. By utilising a specially developed martensitic-aging stainless steel alloy that can achieve tensile strength in excess of MPa, with a strength-to-weight ratio that can take on the best in the world.

The resilient ride of steel, very high impact strength similar to armour plating and fatigue resistance combine to provide an extraordinary material that can now be used for tubing. Reynolds work with directly with fabricators to provide recommended production techniques, so that the challenges inherent in using an extremely hard metal can be overcome. Columbus XCR. Starting form a specific request of the military industry, looking for a valid substitute for cadmium plated temper hardening steels which could no longer be produced because of their highly polluting manufacturing process, a new martensitic stainless steel with high content of Chromium and Molybdenum and Nickel as alloy elements which increase the mechanical and weldability characteristics, was created.

The martensitic main structure contains traces of austenite that reduces the possibility of crack formation especially during the welding process. The great weldability properties of the new XCr stainless steel, together with its high fatigue resistance and its extraordinary geometrical stability at high temperatures, make this material the natural element for welded structures, such as bicycle frames.

Reynolds The benefits of air-hardening steels are particularly noticeable in the weld area where, unlike conventional steel alloys, strength can actually increase after cooling in air immediately after welding. UTS: MPa, density 7. When building frames using either TIG welding or high temperature brazing, above degrees, the joints increase in strength as the frame cools to room temperature.

It allows a much larger area to be heated than tig welding which concentrates the heat to a very small area at the weld. It is however a much cheaper joining method, requiring less time and skill to perform.

Due to the superior mechanical properties of tubing, there are several benefits which will translate directly to the cyclist. The wall thickness of has been reduced to 0. This translates into a frame weight of under 3 pounds 5 ounces for a 56 cm frame. The final significant advantage is the increased stiffness of the frame and its ability to transmit all of the cyclist power into forward motion. The tubeset was the first heat-treated tubeset in the race bicycle industry, based on the same alloy as Used mainly in lugged and fillet-brazed framesets, Reynolds implemented a Certfication procedure for builders who wished to use the tubing, as it helped builders understand the requirement to avoid overheating the thin wall tubes.

Most builders used silver-brazing for the fabrication of frames, due to the low melting point, so that tubing was not annealed inadvertantly. All tubes are now available in the same dimensions within the Reynolds brand tubing. NOTE This was the benchmark by which all high performance bicycle frames have been judged for the last 20 years. This tubing uniquely combines terrific power transmission ability, lively ride, responsiveness and a high degree of comfort, while producing some of the lightest frames available.

Unfortunately frames will never be seen in great numbers. I have a touring bike made with Reynolds tubing. It's now just 40 years old. So I don't go for long distances on it like I use to, and these days going down hills I go a bit slow.

However riding it is really nice bounces over everything, no thud thud. MajorMantra Well-Known Member. Location Edinburgh. With the possible exception of some very exotic carbon frames, even quite heavy riders should be fine on pretty well any bike. Location Macclesfield, Cheshire.

I'm slightly perplexed why a 40 year old frame should be treated gently? Surely the steel shouldn't fatigue under normal conditions should be well within the metal's elastic limits. Making me wonder about the 37 year old Galaxy frame I was intending to turn into a quick SS as in, let loose on the downhills. The reason I said that is, I'v been riding bikes a good few years sixty something to be precise, and one day as a gang of us were riding along on a straight pretty smooth road, one of the gang said wow, my bike as gone at a queer angle, and when we looked one of his stays had a crease in it somewhere in the middle.

We got home slowly, he scraped the frame, it was about 35 years old, tubing. So after mine got past 30 years old I treated it gentle. Have you ever gone down a hill at a good speed, and the rim on the front wheel just blew off with a terrific bang, I have.

I bought them set of wheels from freewheels years ago, and was ready to phone them to give them a ear bashing. But I thought no better have a look see how many miles they have done, as I use to record all my millage in my diary. They had done 30, odd miles, and I recon that's a good millage considering where I live, very hilly. Yashicamat, good camera. It's not what you can see on the outside of the frame it's whats going on in the inside where you can't see it.

I know some people to put oil in the inside tubes on a regular basis and well, perhaps that will increase it's life. Me, after the first year of shiny kit syndrome, my bikes have been left to fend for themselves polishing wise, of course maintenance is something you have to do regularly.

Cheers for the reply Aso Jones.