Tim Bennet.
Entirely Average Member
- Location
- S of Kendal
No worries,
Firstly there are some manufacturers names, the common ones being Reynolds and Columbus, but there were many others (Tange?)
Then there are generic names covering whole families of different steel types, such as Chrome-moly or stainless steel.
Then there are national and international code numbers for steels from various bodies. These standards are steadily becoming more standard (ISO) but you will still see lots of different numbers referring to the same thing: In nuts and bolts, 18-8 Stainless is (almost) identical to AISI 304 to A2, etc
Then there are the proprietary descriptions given by the manufacturers for their particular blends of steel: The Reynolds ones are the most common in the UK, such as 531, 853, 653 etc. These were then subdivided up into tube sets depending on how they were formed, so we get them described as double butted, or conical or the 'Super Touriste' version.
But as bikes are made of tubes, its the combination of the material properties, the properties of the tubes and the assembly as a whole which gives the bike its characteristics. You will often hear that an 853 bike is stiff, but 853's stiffness is identical to all other steels. The reason for this common belief about stiffness is that 853 was stronger (especially after assembling) so thinner tube sets could be drawn which were lighter so they could use larger diameter tubes for the same weight which were (as stiffness increases by the square of the diameter) stiffer. Also 853 was used for racing bikes which in those times were often shod with 18mm tyres banged up so hard that even a recycled plastic bike would seem stiff.
Firstly there are some manufacturers names, the common ones being Reynolds and Columbus, but there were many others (Tange?)
Then there are generic names covering whole families of different steel types, such as Chrome-moly or stainless steel.
Then there are national and international code numbers for steels from various bodies. These standards are steadily becoming more standard (ISO) but you will still see lots of different numbers referring to the same thing: In nuts and bolts, 18-8 Stainless is (almost) identical to AISI 304 to A2, etc
Then there are the proprietary descriptions given by the manufacturers for their particular blends of steel: The Reynolds ones are the most common in the UK, such as 531, 853, 653 etc. These were then subdivided up into tube sets depending on how they were formed, so we get them described as double butted, or conical or the 'Super Touriste' version.
But as bikes are made of tubes, its the combination of the material properties, the properties of the tubes and the assembly as a whole which gives the bike its characteristics. You will often hear that an 853 bike is stiff, but 853's stiffness is identical to all other steels. The reason for this common belief about stiffness is that 853 was stronger (especially after assembling) so thinner tube sets could be drawn which were lighter so they could use larger diameter tubes for the same weight which were (as stiffness increases by the square of the diameter) stiffer. Also 853 was used for racing bikes which in those times were often shod with 18mm tyres banged up so hard that even a recycled plastic bike would seem stiff.
