Ferrite

I have been doing hours and hours of research on tubesets and wanted to get an experience opinion on what tubeset would be a good choice for a first few frames. These will all be road bikes for friends and family. I looked into some NOS 531 tubing but I will have to get new fork blades and chain stay due to different shape/size availability of newer BB shells. So far I'm looking at Dedacciai, Nova brand, and True temper standard road size. What do you think? Links and all the info you are willing to give would help me a lot. Thanks.

Oh! also keep in mind "Bang for the Buck".

unterhausen

they all cost the same, which is "more than you thought they would." At least that's my experience. Either True Temper Verus or Deda Zero Tre would be a good choice. Buying whatever Nova has on special isn't a bad idea.

Ceeway or Nova and others sell BB that fit a NOS set of 531.
For example this one
What is the source for the NOS Reynolds?

mudboy

As far as I can tell, the Nova house brand and the basic Deda tubing is the same, but the Nova is cheaper. I'd go with the Nova, personally, as they regularly have tube/lugs/BB specials for a reasonable price that would allow you to build a complete frame (adding whatever BO's you need, etc.) for under $200.

Pete

unterhausen

I don't know if I should add this, but I think the first tubing someone should buy is some 1" .035 wall and some 1 1/8" .058 wall 4130, cut the .058 wall into 1/2" 1" and 2" pieces and braze it onto the 1" tubes. When that is comfortable, you can buy whatever tubing you like. I really liked the Spirit for Lugs I used on my personal bike.

I'm actually going to do the brazing exercises myself with brass because I've never done any brass brazing with lugs and I would like to use brass on a fork I'm building.

I bought some Deda Zero Tre from Bringhelli so I could practice fillet brazing. It was as cheap as anything out there and seems pretty nice. A little nicer than the Nova ChroMo I bought.

unterhausen

I see the duplicate posting bug is back.

Live Wire 

What brought you to that conclusion?

mudboy

When I called Nova and asked that question, the lady on the phone didn't deny it. Not definitive proof, but I figure there's a fairly limited number of places where they could get it.

rodar y rodar

You seem to be particularly adept at catching it In hopes of not jinxing myself, I`ll leave it at that- wonder if I`m too late?

Half inch, one inch, and two inch pieces. I take it your suggestion is to start practicing on the shortest pieces and gradually work up to the longer ones? If that`s the case, you`re saying it`s possible to sweat filler all the way through a two inch joint? I really need to work on that too, since I`d really like to do some lugs eventually. So far the best sweating I`ve managed was only pulling the filer about a half inch, which I know isn`t enough for most lugs, but it was all the way through the pieces I was working on at the time. As soon as I get done with my current project I`m going into the lug practice business.

unterhausen

the double posting bug mostly affects moderators.

You should be able to pull silver through 2". Some seat lugs are that big. Make them 1 1/2" and call it even.

Ferrite

You can say that again!

Thanks for the tips everyone. I will check on the Nova specials. I'm kinda leaning toward the True Temper.

Bicicle classics is the supplier I found for the Reynolds. I plan on buying 5+ sets to start with but I still need to decide on the tubesets. Might have to sell some bikes to fund my projects though.

Any more info is good info.!

Cassave

FWIW - I've built with Deda Com12.5 and it's a very nice, quality control is excellent. I just built a mixte using a Nova tube set with fine results. As mentioned before, it's possible that Nova tubes are Dedaccia. The chainstay profiles are identical. The Nova tubes were packaged with a BB shell and lugs for $127.00, hard to beat that.