Attention Falanx

[Thylacine]

Here's one for your translating service mate!

http://www.planetjohnsen.com/tmp/ColumbusXCr.jpg

[Scooper]

Hmm.. The bold emphasis on The tubes are seamless seems to be a swipe at 953?

[Thylacine]

Naw, it's just called "Pointing out your competitive advantage to your customers". ;)

Hopefully unlike 953 they'll release it straight away in MTB friendly sizes. One of my gripes with 953 is the sizes they currently do are not very MTB friendly (ie: Downtubes are too short and too thin).

Wouldn't you think one area where you'd really like stainless is in steel MTBs?!?!

[Revtor]

stainless in mountainbikes, yes, but .4mm wall thickness? I'd be a little afraid of denting my custom made beauty!!!
Whate the "passivation" they talk about? stainless not stainless unless it is treated? never heard of that.


the ferrari/aeroastro/military/F1 pedigree is super cool. I love steel!!

steve

[Falanx]

Sorry. Been on bereavement leave.


It's just a boring martensitic steel. Not as sexy as the maraging stainless of 953 ;) Ad that's why you can draw it easily into seamless tubing. The mechanical properties show just that - a heat-treated strength of two thirds or less that of 953, and an approximately equivalent elongation (be very, very wary of published elongation values, as steels of this nature are very strain-rate sensitive).

A fair volume of the brochure is bullshot. Especially the garbage about the as-welded mechanical properties and the corrosion behaviour. Martensitic stainless steels are reknowned for their hydrogen cracking succeptibility in salt-water corrosion environments.

Fal's quick caption review?

"They're trying to steal the march on Reynolds, and appear to have even less idea what they're talking about."

[Thylacine]

Sorry to hear you were on Bereavement leave Falanx. Condolences.

I think most of these companies all have a lightweight dose of real info and marketing rubbish in their product specification. If they were too correct and too full-on, it would scramble the brain of the average bike company or plumber.

I think as a "2/3rds the strength of 953" plus the "seamless" quotent makes this tubing just a mildly stainless version of what's already on the market, and to be frank, I'm not sure the world is asking for a tubeset as strong as 953 anyway, and when you couple that with Columbus' far superior distribution channels I think they're on a winner.

Ironically, if the price is the same as Life or Spirit, then in a cost-weight-performance shootout they will have trumped 953 bigtime.

Of course, the real humour is that the tubing is more than likely a rebadged 'Metax'!

The more things change.....