Classic & Vintage - Aelle tubing

Is Columbus Aelle tubing any good, where does it sit in the lineup?

http://www.equusbicycle.com/bike/columbus/columbuschart.htm

A Benotto I've got hanging in the basement has Aelle tubing, not a featherwieght , but far from heavy. Seems like a good, decent tubing.

Definitely on the low end of the Columbus product line and not particularly light, but it wouldn't stop me from riding a bike made of it!

See here...

http://www.equusbicycle.com/bike/columbus/columbuschart.htm

Aelle main triangle is 0.8mm strait gauge (unbutted) CrMo. A frame made from Aelle will be almost 1 pound heavier than an equivalent frame made from SL and despite that extra weight the Aelle frame will be weaker at the ends of the tubes (where the strength is needed) than a frame made from butted tubing which usually has slightly thicker ends.

Aelle main triangle is 0.8mm strait gauge (unbutted) CrMo. A frame made from Aelle will be almost 1 pound heavier than an equivalent frame made from SL and despite that extra weight the Aelle frame will be weaker at the ends of the tubes (where the strength is needed) than a frame made from butted tubing which usually has slightly thicker ends.

Heavier? Yes. Weaker? Not necessarily. It is almost certain that the middle of butted tubes will be thinner than the middle Aelle, but the ends of both tubesets will almost certainly be the same.

Aelle was intended to be for "entry level" perfromance road bikes. I also believe (but am not sure) that Aelle is seamed, not seamless like 531, SL, SLX, etc. This is a less expensive way to make tubing. All else being equal (meaning the same builder making two frames of the same dimensions, one with Aelle and one with, say, SL), the Aelle frame will be less expensive and will weigh more. Will they ride the same? Probably prety close, but not identical. My guess is that the Aelle frame would feel a little less lively compared to SL or 531 or other quality butted tubing of similar vintage.

This article needs to be re-posted again, it would seem:

http://www.habcycles.com/m7.html

Heavier? Yes. Weaker? Not necessarily. It is almost certain that the middle of butted tubes will be thinner than the middle Aelle, but the ends of both tubesets will almost certainly be the same.

For standard deminsion vintage CrMo tubes, columbus used 0.9mm wall thickness ends for SL and Chromor. You would need to go to KL tubing (which was very rare) or renyolds tubing to get the end butts thinner than 0.9mm. In addition, aelle used inferior grade of steel with a lower tensile strength steel than their butted tubes so I would maintain that the strength of an aelle tube frame is significantly less than a SL or chromor frame. Every steel bike I have ever had crack occurred near the end of the tube (within the heat effected zone), any extra strength of the middle of the aelle tube is not needed.

My first Guerciotti was TreTubi Aelle. It rode as nice as my SLX Guerciotti.

I had a Cilo with Aelle tubing. I loved the way that it rode and would happily pick up another....

I had a low end Pinarello with Aelle tubing a while back and it rode very nice also. I always attributed it mostly to the tubulars though.

So does the 'tretubi' mean three tubes or something? My Cilo had an Aelle/Tretubi sticker on it; I always assumed it was a combination of tubing types

Tretubi usually means the three main tubes. The stays are likely something else.

Aelle was at the low end of Columbus' product line, but still made a decent frame:

http://www.os2.dhs.org/~john/catalogs/Columbus-tubes.pdf

I have a lower model Somec with Aelle tubing, and for my weight of 195 pounds it rides very well in comparison to my Columbus SL/SP and Reynolds 531 bikes. Your mileage may vary....

and for the record: Aelle was also available as
Aelle R (usually the "R" was red in the decal) which was a BUTTED Aelle tubeset
and Aelle OR which was an OVERSIZED Aelle tubeset

Great info, thanks!!