Hey everyone,

Just what the title says.. Googling it, some articles said that Reynolds 953 fork blades arent available, yet I found pictures of 953 fork blades.. therefore im a little confused..

Also, what about Reynolds 953 / stainless steel fork crowns, steer tubs, dropouts? Available? If so, where to buy?

Thanks guys,

Fabian

Fairing showed them at NAHBS in Austin last year, and the Reynolds rep at the Fairing booth said they'd be available that fall (2011). At NAHBS this year in Sacramento I asked about them at the Fairing booth, and was told they were experiencing production problems. That was in early March.

Along the same lines (but not quite) is any manufacturer making stainless steerer tubes?

I think most people are pretty happy with the true temper lightweight steerer(OXPLATMSRDLT). As long as that's available, not sure there is much call for a replacement

But for an all stainless frame, it would make sense to have a stainless steerer, no?

I'd really like to be able to obtain a 28.6mm stainless steerer with 1.6 to 2.3 tapered WT. There is no "off the shelf" tube which comes close.

Buy a length of stainless tube from a surplus stockholder and turn down the material?

I thought of that but local suppliers have only 304 and 316 in appropriate diameters / wall thicknesses. I thought they'd be too weak for the application.

I can get 2205 but not in the sizes required. Any other suggestions for which alloy to use?

2205 duplex? It's not much different in strength from drawn 304 or 316, and you'll have cracking issues welding it to a martensitic steel.

I can't believe there's no surplus stainless stockholders round that way, that would carry something like a 410 or so... I like in Birmingham UK, the second biggest city in the country, admittedly (pop 2.4 million inc suburbs) but it's not exactly a world reknowned back-yard engineering place anymore, the UK... and we've got abloody huge stainless surplus holder.

I assume you wanted 28.6 OD?

Thanks for the advice

I'm a winemaker by trade so access to 304 and 316 is supremely easy. I understood that drawn tubing lost its work hardening if heated sufficiently, or do you have to get it all the way to the recrystallisation temperature for that to happen? I'll be brazing not welding and with 56% silver I should be able to keep it below 700C or so.

I can get 410 tubing here but I need to order in quantities of >600m. Not going to happen in this lifetime. Basically in Australia at the moment if it's used in mining you can get hold of it, if not, hard luck. Melbourne used to be the manufacturing centre of Australia but Guangzhou is now.

If you can get 410 tubing at surplus prices, want to make a quick few quid selling it to me at retail? I want 38.1 x 1.6, 31.8 x 1.6, 28.6 x 1.6 and 25.4 x 1.6 but I don't need much of any of them and the lengths can be short for easy shipping. A length of 5 x 50 flat bar would also come in handy.

Sorry for the delay, gentlemen :-)

You'll lose the work hardening in a drawn 3xx series at 700 degrees, but you'll also well overtemper a hardenable steel and overage a precipitation hardening one. AT that temperature you're softening any of the types. I wouldn't worry hugely about it. Just make sure you have the section to overcome any strength reduction.

I'll keep my eyes open for 410, 431, even APX4 if I can see it about.