I bet you put a set of cranks on your wheelbarrow too! ;)

Right, and Ryan Reedell tells me that there's nothing wrong with that. It's the brand he uses most. He's the husband of the husband/wife team that makes up Folk Engineered.

There seems to be a misconception in this thread that cromoly is somehow inferior to maganese molybdenum - i.e.: All True Temper is inferior to Reynolds 531, and is comparable to 501 only because of material properties.

Not so. True Temper's line is as varied as Columbus (SL, SLX, etc. = cromoly), and you'll find everything from the mid-range to their top-end OX Platinum (a heat-treated cromoly), of which this machine was built from:

http://www.jaysmarine.com/_DSC2072.jpg

Note tubing decal on the seat tube (excuse the lack of focus):

http://www.jaysmarine.com/terraferma_limited16.jpg

-Kurt

That is a monster.

Hopefully...I will have useful commentary on True Temper tubing in the next couple of weeks, as my Meech custom crossbike is being painted as we speak...the frame is built with a mix of S3 and OX Platinum.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=199959

I don't think I've seen what Cyclex steel actually is, though it probably is some variant of cromoly. I assumed CROMOR was their generic cromoly.

And then there is Nivacrom.

Yes, things got complicated (maybe the Marketing Dept. took charge?) between the early '80s and late '80s.
Early chart says everything (SL, SP, KL, Record, SLX, SPX, etc.) was "CroMo" except for Aelle and one grade of Trampo (#3) which was called C.Mn., assumed to mean Chrome-Manganese, (but...?)
Then they started to get sophisticated with the metallurgic formulas and presumedly heat-treating. Suddenly all the previous CrMo were called "Cyclex", but new brands (Niva, EL, Max) were now made from "Nivacrom" ... TSX was the new brand to be made from "old Cyclex" along with all the old stand-bys.
Cromor and Gara were the new "low-end" sets to now be called "CroMo", but these were not "Cyclex" Chrome-moly (what was different between those formulas?, I don't know)...Aelle was still the only kind alloyed with Manganese.

I jumped to a random page on Waterford's site. The first sentence: "Waterford's 33-Series builds on True Temper's revolutionary S3 technology." True Temper seems to have some discerning fans.

I just got a 20 year old KHS bike made with True Temper. Bike made in Taiwan. I notice they sometimes leave out the 'e' in True and sometimes not. Is there a chronology to that?

My KHS has an "e" in True Temper. Never nailed down a year for the frame, though.

Can you post a photo of the decal?

I'm curious to see the Tru too, Tom.

After some research, I was under the impression that Columbus cyclex was just 100% columbus marketing jargon for regular SAE 4130 spec CrMo steel. The 4130 specification is more of a range of content than an exact formulation but cyclex falls within the 4130 spec. I dont think that columbus ever did much with heat treating their cyclex tubing (as Reynolds did with 753), columbus was too busy with putting spirals on the inside of their best tubesets throughout the 80's.

True Temper was used by Serotta to build many of the "Huffy" frames for the 7-Eleven team. Under pressure to make the bikes super light, Serotta used a thin variant of the tubing, and a rash of breakages ensued. The problem was quickly corrected, but a number of 7-Eleven riders began looking for alternatives - leading to Bob Roll's Huffy-De Rosa, Andy Hampsten's Huffy-Landshark, etc. The story has continued to circulate, leading to the idea in some people's minds - incorrectly - that True Temper is problematical.

I'll take a picture of the KHS.

I remember when they came out in about 1979. They were crappy. But a lot of things started out that way.

I've had a couple of 501 Treks? A 1984 lugged 830 MTB, and an 1983 560. From what I have read Trek used 501 for only those two years? I also had a 91/92 Trek 990 MTB made with True Temper OX oversized tubing. The most gorgeous lugged mtb I've ever seen, and rode like a dream. I wish I still had it now that live near some decent trails!,,,,BD


Looked just like this one, but a larger frame. Sniff sniff....

http://www.lancele.com/BikeGear/1992_Trek_990_2.jpg

I'm gonna take some pics of my True Temper decals, too.

Not exactly, chromoly = 4130, which is a standard that states MINIMUM requirements. You can make a minimally qualifying alloy that can be called 4130 or a better alloy that can be called 4130. Quality differences are still possible.

Yes, there's marketing, but I know I've seen tables of material properties for the materials. One does need to learn to recognize that brand names can be applied to the material ("Cyclex" and "531") and a finished tubeset (SP, SL, SLX, TSX, 531sl, et cetera). There are a lot of products and it's just not gonna be simple. Also to recognize that many different products (types of steel) can be chrome moly or 4130 but have different formulas and performance.

Heat treating (753, 853, Nivacrom) makes steel with a different and higher level of performance and allows thinner tubes thar if designed right are still strong. Stainless alloys (953) take it to another level yet.

Here are pictures of the KHS. I inflated the tires and haven't done anything else with it. I rode it a couple of miles last night.

Well I got the bike the other day. It wasn't True Temper its 501 and it wasn't a 310, its a 560. Decent shape, needs perishables. 50 bucks and a case of beer.

Nice upgrade!

Trek 930

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...or_Sale894.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...or_Sale907.jpg

KHS Aero Turbo

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...or_Sale409.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...or_Sale908.jpg

A lot of discussion regarding True Temper and Trek. I believe Trek did spec specific tubing from trek and had it "custom drawn" as mentioned in their brochures. I believe also it was Trek and Giant were the few with seamless tubing despite True Temper being a "general supplier" of steel.