Originally Posted by
T-Mar
There's not as much difference between the companies as you suggest. While Reynolds and Colombo both started out as bicycle tubing manufacturers, they both quickly diversified in the aeronautical, automotive and other industries. In the case of Colombo, the bicycle tubing almost became a sideline and a separate company, Columbus, was formed in the late 1970's to give more emphasis to the bicycle tubesets. However, even at the height of their popularity, circa 1985, bicycle tubing was only 20% of total sales of the parent company.
It was never stated that Reynolds or Columbus were the original innovators of seamed, billet drawn tubing. I only find it curious that, if what you suggest is true, neither Reynolds nor Columbus bothered to implement it for decades.
Both Reynolds and Columbus were manfacturers of seamless construction tubings aimed at the quality end of the market.Their market advantage was established specifically *because* they could produce the highest quality seamless tubing products tailored specifically to the bicycle industry.The primary advantage of the seamed-billet, drawn tube is a reduction of cost.For Columbus and Reynolds, the move would have been perceived internally as downmarket , that is until more intense competitive pressure from other manufacturers necessitated that they augment their lines with a more economical product.