Classic & Vintage - Tubing Primer?

Reynolds.
Columbus.
Vitus, and Tange.
Ten thousand kinds of tubing
Spread across the land.

One butt.
Two butts.
Three butts, yo.
Don't know the dif with
Hi-ten, thin-gauge, heat-treat, cro-mo.

Actually, it's not quite that bad. My Schwinn Collegiate weighs a ton, and I , know it's not made of 531. (heh, heh.) But is there somewhere a concordance of the various tubing types across makers, with just a wee primer on some of the more abstruse materials science concepts, such as air hardening, aging, etc.? (please don't feel obliged to explain these particular concepts ... they're just for illustration.) Thanks.

Eric

Let me see if I can get this started with what I know, and let someone else fill in the gaps and correct any of my mistakes:

HiTen aka Hi-Tensle, aka Carbon Steel, also known as 1020 or the slightly better 2040, are your heavy tubes found on lower end bikes of the boom. My Schwinn Traveler (80 model built by Panasonic) was built of this. 32lbs from factory.

Next up is your general Cro-Mo steels, often only marked as 4130. Depending on the thickness of the steel and the what it was formed they got different names from different companies.

From there you get into the high end steels that you often hear about, 531's, Columbus SL, SLX, etc.

-------------------

Most older Reynolds you'll find is either 531 (some variation on it, or partially built with it), and 501. Later they got lighter steels such as 753 and a few others.

For Columbus you have from top to bottom: SLX, SL, SP for their higher end tubing. Columbus Tenax is a heavier straight gauge set which is often found on mid 80's Schwinns such as my Passage.

Tange had Champion, #1, #2, (or some mixture there of, someone else can clearify that) and also I know of Tange Infinity which was a lower end Cro-Mo set.

--------------------

Tubes can either be straight gauge (same wall thickness from end to end), or butted in some combination. Butting simply means that some areas are thicker than others. Typically the middle of the tubes thinner than the ends where they meet the lugs and or welds, brazing, etc. 531 steel came in both straight gauge and a variation of buttings. My Gazelle Champion is built with 531c which is a double butted 531 set.

Air hardening is basically a current used process, only vintage tubing that used it and was avail. was Reynolds 753. One could write a chapter of a book or even a whole book in answer to your question.

Basically the top stuff from any of the makers was quality equal with each other, yes there were thickness differences, but weight is a coffee house bragging rights kind of thing for 99% of the riders out there.

Try
http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/WofMatE/Metals&Alloys.htm

Joe

That page isn't as neat as SJSU's old site which seemed more specific to bicycles, but it looks like a start.

Joe

I'd also suggest a look at the Granddaddy of it all, the history of Reynolds and 531: http://web.archive.org/web/19980109144634/reynoldsusa.com/history/history.html
But you know, I gathered all I know from a multitude of sources, and I'm still learning more every day. There doesn't seem to be one encyclopedia page that sets it all out, complete and precise.
But to add a few things that Cuda2k 's OP, there's an even lower starting point than Hi-Ten (High Carbon steel) and that's regular mild steel AKA "gas pipe", it's even weaker and therefore has to be heavier to build up the toy and dept. store bikes that are made from it.
In a nutshell: you have steel alloyed with minute amounts of other metals such as chromium, manganese, molydenum...531 reportedly was a description of the percentages of alloying metals: 5%, 3%, 1% added to the steel.
Then you have different manufacturing techniques: Reynolds patented the method of cold drawing a tube through a die with an internal mandrel that was adjusted to make a butted, thicker internal diameter at both ends, leaving it thin in the center and a consistant external diameter...amazing when you think of it!
You could also draw it hot, draw it in a simple consistant diameter (plain guage, not butted), or roll up a flat strip and weld a seam to make a tube (rolled and seamed) either making a simple or a butted tube.
Innovations came along like internal grooves or splines added to steerer tubes, and then to the other tubes (specifically Columbus SL/SP and then SLX/SPX), as well as multiple-profile butting (specific to several Japanese makers like Ishiwata, Miyata, and Fuji) called triple and quad butting.
Then you have different dimensions: metric size tubes, standard tubeset, oversized...then adjustments to the guage (like 0.7-0.9) describing the thickness of the main tube to the butted section of a DB (double-butted) tube. The guage can be adjusted while keeping the external diameters standard, to produce lighter or heavier tubesets, appropriate for different bikes, different size frames, different user requirements and different construction techniques.
And that last item (construction) is what resulted in the more recent innovations: hardening of thin guage steel alloys to permit lightest weights and greatest FINISHED strength when TIG welded. Alloys have been further fine-tuned to create the ultimate specialized product tailored to the manufactuer and his product...but since there's less demand for steel bikes (or just more profit in aluminum), there are fewer steel alloy tubesets available to the builder in 2007 then back in 1995. Reynolds and Dedacchai are still pulling steel tubes, Columbus might be, but many others have dropped out.
There's a quick overview, as you see there's a lot to learn. I wish Sheldon would write up the definitive article on his site!

I seem to remember someone posted a scan of an article written about tubing here, maybe about a year ago, though it could have been longer. I believe it was pretty comprehensive and included information about most of the major manufacturers and their most common products. If I get a few free moments I'll see if I can track it down. Hopefully it didn't get lost in one of the server meltdowns.

Well I think I found the post I was thinking of. Looks like the articles have been stripped off however.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=147170&highlight=article+steel+tubing

Maybe if you contact cyclezen he'd be kind enough to repost them.

My 1988 Schwinn frame is made of Tange Prestige II, one of the better CrMos of its day.

Let me see if I can get this started with what I know, and let someone else fill in the gaps and correct any of my mistakes:

HiTen aka Hi-Tensle, aka Carbon Steel, also known as 1020 or the slightly better 2040, are your heavy tubes found on lower end bikes of the boom. My Schwinn Traveler (80 model built by Panasonic) was built of this. 32lbs from factory.

Next up is your general Cro-Mo steels, often only marked as 4130. Depending on the thickness of the steel and the what it was formed they got different names from different companies.

From there you get into the high end steels that you often hear about, 531's, Columbus SL, SLX, etc.

-------------------

Most older Reynolds you'll find is either 531 (some variation on it, or partially built with it), and 501. Later they got lighter steels such as 753 and a few others.

For Columbus you have from top to bottom: SLX, SL, SP for their higher end tubing. Columbus Tenax is a heavier straight gauge set which is often found on mid 80's Schwinns such as my Passage.

Tange had Champion, #1, #2, (or some mixture there of, someone else can clearify that) and also I know of Tange Infinity which was a lower end Cro-Mo set.

--------------------

Tubes can either be straight gauge (same wall thickness from end to end), or butted in some combination. Butting simply means that some areas are thicker than others. Typically the middle of the tubes thinner than the ends where they meet the lugs and or welds, brazing, etc. 531 steel came in both straight gauge and a variation of buttings. My Gazelle Champion is built with 531c which is a double butted 531 set.

I thought Tenax was butted. I know it is seamed.

Tim

It's possible, I don't think the label on mine states either way but during my reaserch I thought I'd read it was straight. I could very well be mistaken. Its been known to happen.