what is this???
 

Good Afternoon,

So I have been fixin up my fathers old road bike and one of the decal stickers on the tubing says "K.C.L speical light seamless tubing," just curious if someone out there knows what KCL stands for. I have been trying to get pictures up, but for some reason the download keeps failing. Any info would be great.

thanx

What components are on the bike? Can you find a serial number?

Do you have a photo hosting account with Photobucket or any of the other sites?

East Hill

My father's old Apollo has a KLC sticker also, and I was wondering the same thing.

Can you post a pic of the decal?

Decals here...
 

I have run across several Apollo bicycles. Here is a pic or two of the decals with KCL on them. Hope this is a help. Other than that, I know nothing about the tubing.

Attachment 144261 Attachment 144262

Am sure KCL is a maker's mark but can't find a reference to any company with that name.

Hi-Ten tubing. 'nuff said

Kuwahara (the maker of Apollo bikes) private label tubing, likely Tange. Kuwahara also made several "Schwinn-Approved" bikes in the 70s

The decal probably means you are using a basic chromoly tubing...If it doesn't say high tensile then you might have your basic tange or 4130 tube. Good stuff.

I would go with Hi-ten, i.e. carbon steel. If there was anymore to it surely it would be advertised on the decal.

I chuckled at a saddle advertisement in the latest Nashbar flyer featuring "Fe-C alloy" rails, i.e. iron-carbon, i.e. carbon steel. :lol: It was a cheap saddle, obviously.

Hi-ten is typically SAE/AISI 10xx plain carbon steel, not chromium-molybdenum which is 41xx (the xx in the last two digits indicate the carbon content in hundredths of a percent). The "ten" in "Hi-ten" is a play on words; High tensile and high ten (as in higher carbon content AISI 10xx.

Alloying of Steels.