Originally Posted by
gugie
The modulus of elasticity for just about all steels is the same. If you were to build a frame from cheap steel pipe and one out of Reynolds 953, as long as it had the same wall thickness, they would ride the same. That is, as long as you didn't crank down on the steel pipe frame and permanently bend it. An easy analogy would be to make a spring out of both materials with the same shape and size. They would both bend the same under a small load, then bend back (elastic deformation). At a higher load/bend distance the cheap steel would bend permanently, while the 953 spring would continue to spring back.
So, bending that UE 8 stay easily might have to do with the diameter of the tube near the bottom bracket and large indentations for tires and chainrings. Or maybe you're saying it was easy to bend and stay bent?
No not easy to stay bent. I did not actually bend the stays. I just pushed them apart to insert the wheel. It was set at 120mm and the wheels are 126 mm. When I've done the same thing with a higher quality steel, it was much harder to just push the steel apart. I've had good luck by just pushing the stays apart rather than cold setting them. I know you're not supposed to do it this way but it has worked well for me repeatedly.