NOS88

At the request of my son (he and I both have a 2007 Jamis Eclipse with carbon/Reynolds 853) I was doing some research and I've uncovered another myth I was holding onto. While I like this bike a great deal (the only exception is that the rear end gets a bit skittish on fast descents) I held an incorrect belief about the materials. I figured Jamis went with the steel because it was cheaper than titanium. I thought it was pretty cool that I could get carbon and 853 steel in the same bike, but secretly wished I could have the Ti/carbon mix. What I didn't realize is the full advantage of the 853 and the way it's used in this bike. Apparently, when the joints with 853 are heated past 1600 degrees they actually get stronger as they air harden... something that doesn't usually happen with chrome molybdenum or manganese molybdenum. Hence it makes joints that actually are strong than titanium joints would be. Who knew? Well, I guess that's the point. Some folks knew, but not me. It keeps my happy knowing that there continues to be so, so, much more one can learn about this obsession.

lhbernhardt

My Rodriguez fixie is built with True Temper OX Platinum air-hardenable steel. This explains what air-hardenable steel is, how it is designed to be TIG-welded, and how it retains all of its tensile strength (3x that of Reynolds 531) if it's silver-soldered instead:

https://www.henryjames.com/oxplat.html

Yes, it's truly amazing what advances have been made in steel. And you can even get frames as light as carbon fiber if you use True Temper S3.

L.