I'm sure if I searched the site, I'd find answers the following but since this thread is just opened, I'll go ahead an ask. Are there functional differences I,as a rider, am likely to notice among the higher end options or is asking the question opening a personal preference can of worms along the lines of "shimano vs. Campy" . Columbus talks about niobium, themacrom and nivacrom with their various tubesets (life, foco, zona, etc) , while Reynolds with 953, 853, 631 etc, discusses stainless teal, heat treating and air hardening . Then there is Tru temper platinum OX whatever that is and whatever Tange makes. I am considering a frame made with Columbus foco (niobium --- main triangle) with nivacrom stays to replace a frame I had,which was Reynolds 631 with 725 stays. I am inferring that the Foco tubes from columbus are a bit higher up the chain that 631 (so will be a bit lighter and thinner) but really have no clue.
Edited to add: Nevermind, I did some searching and there are in fact 8 gazillion threads on this so I'll just read them
Last edited by DOS; 10-21-10 at 06:36 PM.
Reason: I was lazy and now I am not.