Not to put too fine a point on it, but the info on Reynolds 531 is a bit off topic, since it's steel strengthened with manganese, not chrome molybdenum. To add to the original posters question, why did chromo become so available and affordable in the 1980's? It seems that chromo made inroads to a level of bicycles just a step above entry level. Was it just the competition between the various bicycle companies? Did it become the buzzword for the market at that time, something a novice bicycle purchaser would recognize as a "quality" product?