Viewing 26 posts - 41 through 66 (of 66 total)
  • Custom Steel Frame – What steel?x
  • woody74
    Full Member

    Since when is saying Columbus tubing is slightly heavier than Reynolds a moronic statement? Get the spec sheets from the manufacturers and you will clearly see that Reynolds is the lightest. Columbus is also tons cheaper to buy and can be easily bought by the individual tube. I know this as I have bought both and built frames with both. Now whether saying the difference in weight is relevant is a different story. I would agree that it isn’t noticeable but in cycling we love to save a few 100g here and there. Just because you want a steel frame doesn’t mean you don’t care about weight.

    somafunk
    Full Member

    I felt it only right to clean off the blood before i gave it to him 🙂 ,

    1789g for the frame with seat post shim btw

    thegreatape
    Free Member

    I’m waiting for that comment to be explained or expanded on too woody74.

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    mick_r
    Full Member

    Well the steel is the same density so any weight difference is only in the tube dimensions that the manufacturers are happy to use….

    I don’t think you can really trust the spec sheets. The Columbus weights are for a cut tube for the average road frame – whatever that means. If you’re cutting the maximum / minimum from a butted tube then the weight is going to be very different.

    Columbus Zona is pretty cheap but not sure what you’d compare it directly with from Reynolds. Similarly 853 has no direct Columbus equivalent. And everybody’s stainless is expensive!

    piemonster
    Full Member

    Man walks into a restaurant. Seriously. Walks into the kitchen and up to the chef and asks, “So where do you buy your meat?” Who would do that?

    I’ve an Italian friend who I’ve witnessed do this repeatedly. Well, twice, and only in Italian restaurants.

    shandcycles
    Free Member

    Since when is saying Columbus tubing is slightly heavier than Reynolds a moronic statement?

    Since the beginning of time?

    All steel tubes drawn to the same specification weigh the same. Doesn’t matter where it comes from. It’s material science.

    Seriously though, if you mean a lighter tube from Reynolds weighs less than a heavier tube from Columbus then you’re probably correct.

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    alextemper – unbiased sources then?

    And Somafunk is your breaking a 1.8kg custom frame meant to be a recommendation?

    piemonster
    Full Member

    There are no stupid questions

    mick_r
    Full Member

    And Somafunk is your breaking a 1.8kg custom frame meant to be a recommendation?

    You didn’t see what he rode into – the frame came off better than his face……

    amedias
    Free Member

    Think you should probably ask him about how he broke it Al, don’t think the weight of the frame was much of a factor in that particular breakage given the circumstances

    somafunk
    Full Member

    I doubt many frames would survive a 20mph+ impact with a horizontal metal bar 18″ from ground level so that’d be a yes to your question

    Edit : I imagine a spoon built frame would survive though 😉

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    Son the impact would have broken any frame…and this is a recommendation for the Soulcraft?

    I am amazed at the myth built around custom frames

    amedias
    Free Member

    Son the impact would have broken any frame…and this is a recommendation for the Soulcraft?
    I am amazed at the myth built around custom frames

    spoke to Matt n’ Sean a fair number of times and then left him to get on with it, without doubt the frame built up into the best riding bike i have ever owned,

    Seems to me that the recommendation was in regards to how the bike rode not anything to do with the circumstances of it’s demise

    The fact that he went on to get it repaired is another pretty good recommendation, if it was no good or nothing special I imagine most people we be content to scrap it, but wanting to get it repaired is a glowing endorsement in my eyes

    deviant
    Free Member

    quite common for decent restaurants nowadays to talk about the provenance of their meat – the breed, how and where it was raised, and why.

    That’s because they’re pandering to the middle class tits eating said meal who want to feel like some kind of connoisseur and mildly superior for eating in the aforementioned establishment.

    For what it’s worth I’m so cool I won’t eat meat when in a restaurant as the chef never cooks it as well as I do at home.

    bencooper
    Free Member

    Building forks…Shirley you buy pre bent blades, cut to length, braze it all together, done?

    I bend my own 😉

    Columbus and Reynolds both make good tubes – neither is better than the other, you choose the tubes you want for the frame you’re building. I quite often mix Columbus, Reynolds, Deda and 4130 depending on what I’m doing.

    Xylene
    Free Member

    I am amazed at the myth built around custom frames

    what is the myth?

    For me to get a bike that fits me means importing it myself – this can mean anything between 7% and 30% duty plus 7% tax depending on what robbing customs official I get. Bringing a complete bike in can be 30-100%.

    I’m 193cm tall, with freaskishly long legs, and a short body, XL frames on road bikes generally fit my legs, but not my torso.

    There are a couple of bike fit places in the city that are reasonably priced – 30 to 50 GBP, that would give me a better idea of the frame dimensions I could look for. I could then spend months pouring over frames and bike specs, not a bad thing to do, order a bike and pick it up in the summer.

    Either that I could have someone build a frame for me, sneak all the component through the post, as customs never seem to tax them, and have my own custom bike – powder coated in some lurid chrome and eye piercing yellow with a purple fizz.

    I love my current bike, but it isn’t quite right in fit, and I’ve bought, stems, seat posts, bars new tape etc several times now, but it’s still not quite there.

    Besides, I want to use my shipping allowance in the summer to bring my old original voodoo wanga over with me

    alextemper
    Free Member

    @mick r and @cynic-al

    I was enquiring about swapping out a cracked top tube on my Roberts and this was the answer I received back. So either Chas Roberts was using a unique or special type of Columbus 18 odd years ago or the builders in question were taking the p1ss or didn’t really want to do the work. I guess fillet brazing would put some poeple off.

    bencooper
    Free Member

    I can’t see Chas Roberts being scared of a bit of fillet brazing. It’s possible that he was getting specially drawn tubes from Columbus for something or other, that might explain the stock thing, but normal Columbus and Reynolds tubes are easily available.

    philxx1975
    Free Member

    18 years ago there were a great deal more columbus tubes I had a max OR frame and it had SLX tubes, those tubes were obsolete in the 90s so maybe they Just never had tubes left.

    http://www.equusbicycle.com/bike/columbus/columbuschart.htm

    The hole framebuilder being special is bobbins maybe 20-30, maybe 40, years ago but today it’s like hipster special coffee.

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    The myth is that they are somehow WAY better than off the shelf frames with similar tubing (not for odd sized people and for issues).

    The fact that he went on to get it repaired is another pretty good recommendation

    Yes but based on what-he loved his custom frame he spent a mint on. Entirely subjective.

    Be done interestedly to know why you mix tubing?

    bencooper
    Free Member

    Be done interestedly to know why you mix tubing?

    Me? Because different manufacturers make different things, and sometimes a tube isn’t available at all from Columbus or Reynolds, so I use seamless 4130.

    Especially long lengths of tubing – the 50mm stuff for recumbents is only available in 4130. Columbus make long lengths of some tubes in smaller diameters which are handy for other things, but most bike tubes are cut and butted for conventional bike frames, which is a bit limiting for what I build.

    tang
    Free Member

    I like the Reynolds tubing decals.

    ampthill
    Full Member

    Quirrel

    If you are an odd body shape and require a frame size that no one makes then custom makes sense

    cynical-al

    I don’t think it’s not harder to build a fork than a frame. As Mike-R says its knowing that the brazing has really worked. As a victim of a fork failure it really is more serious than a frame failure

    Oh and don’t forget that as well as brazing the tubes into the lug it’ll need a tube fitted into the base of the steerer to allow to allow for the stress riser where the crown race sits. Or maybe these days the butt at the base of the steerer is thick enough not to need internal reinforcement

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    Interesting Ben, (and well done for seeing past the typo), not the oft spouted “to get the perfect ride”.

    alextemper
    Free Member

    @ben

    Chas Roberts built the frame (DOGSBOLX) so he did the brazing. Was in reference to the other frame builders being put off. Unfortunately Roberts are on sabbatical but are reachable so I need to see if they can point me in a direction. Anyway I digress…

    mick_r
    Full Member

    Roberts was Columbus Max I seem to remember. Ovalised tubeset – not sure exactly what size was used, but still might be available at Ceeway. There is a top tube listed in 3 different lengths.

    There might have been MAX OR for mtbs which was maybe thicker wall (but there isn’t really such a thing as a “road / mtb tube” – just different diameters, thicknesses and lengths that you apply to different applications).

    http://www.framebuilding.com/Max.htm

    Otherwise just get a round or “Megatube” Zona one fitted – it is the same steel alloy and you’ll really not notice the ride difference. Buying your own 31.7mm single tube would be less than £25 plus VAT plus post. Hacksaw out the old tube if you really want to know what it’s internal dimensions were…..

    http://www.framebuilding.com/ZONA.htm

    Al – custom isn’t just for odd shaped people – with the advent of more widespread fatigue safety testing, plenty of lighter riders could be safely running frames much lighter than off the peg Inbreds, P7s etc.

    e.g. My lad’s 14″ mtb (just one butted tube – the rest is plain gauge cromo) is well over 1lb lighter than a 14″ Inbred (butted 4130).

Viewing 26 posts - 41 through 66 (of 66 total)

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