Originally Posted by
Peterpan1
Which begs the question as to what is the advantage to harder steel in the first place, in the butts in particular.
The heat treatment increases the tensile strength, which in turn allows the builder to use a thinner gauge tube without sacrificing strength. I would hesitate to recommend a heat treated tube set for a first time builder; your heat control must be very good to avoid overheating the tube and thus obviating the advantage of the heat treatment in the first place. Not to mention the fact that heat treated tubes are harder than standard tubes and will wear out your files and saw blades more quickly. Start with standard, untreated tubing and work your way up to the heat treated stuff.
If one could somehow come up with a method to create continuous bike frames without any joints, but with "butts" in the usual places, would one next turn R&D to developing a process for selectively hardening the tubing intersections?
Isn't that what they do with carbon fiber frames?