Originally Posted by
bulgie
Gary H might be the biggest reason steel lightweights started to be TIG welded. Of course Teledyne Titan and the other Ti frames like Flema were TIG welded way earlier, but in steel, TIG was restricted to BMX. It was widely believed that TIG was inappropriate somehow for thin steel. Gary knew better, he was a skilled welder working for Chris Chance but not welding frames, until he convinced Chris to try one. Chris agreed and
AFAIK that was the first widely-available welded steel frame. Chris of course went on to make the popular Fat Chance bikes that were all welded. MTBs soon followed, with road not too far behind.
That may be because the small ones didn't work very well until sometime in the 1970s. That improvement may have taken awhile to trickle down to bike builders.