First shaped tubes?
 

My dad owned a bike in the mid '80s, which he says was the first to have aerodynamically-shaped frame tubes. I'm wondering what it might have been?

Thanks.

Tange Aero tubing?

There were a number of builders playing with the Aero thing at the time. I think there was a thread about it on here recently.

There's a lot of cheapo bikes that have oval tubing, I'm not sure how old that is. Not necessarily intended as "aero" since it's on cheap mountain bikes, but could be perceived that way.

No, it was definitely a road (possibly touring) bike and not a mountain bike.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/scarsgo/SDNZrO1...0/IMG_7502.JPG

Here are some pics of the Panasonic Aero Road (AR-6000) with Tange Aero tubing...

http://picasaweb.google.com/scarsgo/PanasonicAero

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...00/Hinault.jpg
gitane tt, circa approx 1980/81- custom reynolds aero tubing


colnago oval cx 1981,columbus/colnago cx tubing

http://raydobbins.com/ovalcx/photos/photo1.jpg

http://raydobbins.com/ovalcx/photos/photo8.jpg

First "shaped tubes" other than square chainstays from the turn of the last century would be Bates using "Cantiflex" tubing from 1936.

http://classicrendezvous.com/British_isles/Bates.htm

the tubes got bigger between the lugs.

Columbus MS tubing. multi-shaped, no two tubes on the bike were the same. There's a Basso with MS tubing on eBay right now, going for big bucks.

Certainly not the earliest but very interesting.

Unless you are going perfectly straight all the time with a dead on head/tail wind I can't see much benefit from tubing like this, overall I think it would slow you down a bigger % of the time more than it would make you faster.

It was a Panasonic Aero. Thanks!