Originally Posted by
froze
I understand what your saying, but I also understand my personal experience and others that experienced the same thing. But what your saying in your example is that Reynolds 853 cannot be stiffer then 531 if all the tube dimensions are the same as in your statements and both materials are steel. Yet you and I both know that 853 is stiffer then 531 and the 853 uses thinner tubing making it lighter then 531 but same diameter as 531. So if this is true then why wouldn't Ishawata, which was made differently then Reynolds or Columbus be stiffer?
I don't mean to sound like a know it all and I'm not trying to talk down to you...but as I said, all steels have the same stiffness per unit of material. That means that the steel used in 531, SL/SP, 853, 953, Deda COM16.5, etc, ALL have the same stiffness. The difference in these different alloys is some are stronger, so the tubing mfger's can change the diameters and thickness to develop different overall tube characteristics. Bottom line is that if you had a .9/.6 853 tube and a .9/.6 531 tube, and both has the same butting configuration and diameter, both of these tubes would have the exact same stiffness and the rider wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
