Re: What early 70's Italian frame to buy

obs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

jasonkrantz@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

This is hardly definitive, but I hope it helps:IIRC, BG had several
frames built up by the same builder (I think it was Marinoni, in
Canada). They were identical in all repects save for the tubing, which
ran the gamut from Columbus Aelle (straight gauge, seamed tubing) to
whatever the high-end Columbus tubing of the day was (SLX, maybe?).

All things being equal, I believe you can feel a difference if a bike
is 1 lb lighter. It is difficult to impossible to feel any lesser
difference. The difference between reynolds 531 plain gauge
main-tubes and reynolds 531 db through is not quite 1 pound - it's
something like 10-12 oz.

You can feel a difference between a high-carbon steel frame and a
butted frame. The butting makes more difference than the lightness.
This is the main advantage of reynolds 531 db tubes.

I prefer to buy bikes with 531 db main tubes, 531 forks, and who knows
what is in the rear triangle. These bikes often sell for half the
price of a 531 throughout bike in a liquid used bike market, like
ebay. E.g. Raleigh Gransport/Competition, Peugeot PR-10, motobecane
gran jubilee, etc.

You can probably measure the difference between a columbus db bike and
a reynolds db bike in a 10 mi timetrial, since the columbus frame is
roughly 100 grams lighter, according to charts I've seen. But you
could not know the difference until you clicked your stopwatch.

- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA
.

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