Originally Posted by
Doug Fattic
Back in the early 80's one of my friends asked me why bicycle frames were not TIG welded together. I replied that it must not be possible or someone would have been doing it. I did know that KHS (I think) made a TIG welded tandem frame but I assumed that was only possible because a tandem of that era used thick walled tubing.
USA were the pioneers of TIG bicycle frames. We first started seeing them in the UK in the 90s from brands like Muddy Fox and Ridgeback, who were getting them made out of Cromoly in Taiwan, copying the early US MTBs. Domestic production of Raleighs, Falcons, Claude Butlers etc. in UK however continued to use lugs, because that's just what our bike factories had always done. And you can't weld Reynolds 531 anyway.
Reynolds came out with their main weldable tubes (631 and 853) in 1996, by which time most of the UK mass-produced industry was well in decline anyway.