I'm a bit late to this discussion, and just went out and read GP's blog posting. I thought it was very interesting and pretty much on the mark. I'd like to offer a data point.
In 1983 I bought a Trek 620, which was billed as a "touring" bike but was really a sport-touring bike made with Reynolds 531C, which I have always assumed was 1/7/1. Later I swapped it for a 1984 & larger size, which I still have and ride. In 1988 I bought a custom Marinoni stage racing bike, which has Columbus tubing. Probably 9/6/9 but I'm not certain. I'd never heard GPs claim that people advertised Reynolds for touring and Columbus for criterium but I have to say my experience suggests that is imaginary. Both of these bikes ride very nicely, both are responsive, both climb and descend solidly, both have excellent road manners. The Trek has mostly been ridden on 32 mm clinchers and the Marinoni on 21 mm tubulars, so the rides do differ. Whatever difference there are in the performance of these two bikes I doubt if many people could ever identify them as fame material. In 2004 I bought a Rambouillet, which has OS tubing. And I would say the ride especially with light weight wheels and tires is extraordinarily similar to the Marinoni - it just has a bit slower handling, more tire clearance and braze ons. Again, tube thickness doesn't seem to make any difference at all. I also have a 1999 SOMA Dbl Cross, which is noticeably heavier & stiffer tubing. It definitely rides differently than he others. I have a newer Ebisu All Purpose, with geometry quite similar to the AHH. It is stiffer, with slower handling, especially at slower speed,which I found to be a great advantage while commuting with it. But it does not respond the way the Ram, Marinoni or even the Trek does. So, as has been said, at some point tubing can help make a bike more stable under load or more responsive in a sprint, but the slight difference between quality mfgs. or a mm on the butt is going to disappear very quickly in real world useage. Michael On Friday, September 7, 2012 11:28:09 PM UTC-4, dougP wrote: > > As both BG & GP point out, the art of design has been fine tuned over > decades. The recognizable names making steel frames today have > probably thousands of frames each in their experience. They know what > they're doing. Spend your time on the fun stuff like picking out the > ideal parts for your own bike. > > A question just occurred to me: So you get all this info about tubing > diameters, thicknesses, strengths, etc. What do you do with it? It's > not really info you can act upon. Grant's e-mail puts it into > perspective. With 37 years experience, he got fresh input from an > ironworker. > > dougP > > On Sep 7, 5:02 pm, Leslie <leslie.bri...@gmail.com> wrote: > > AND, there ya go.... Straight from Grant.... Cool! > > > > (I'm assuming everyone gets the RBW emails?) > > > > -L > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/WCur0tyGO0sJ. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
