Originally Posted by professorbob

I think I'm going to order a new steel custom bike and have narrowed it down to a few builders. I want a sport/tour type frame and the ones I've come up with are built by Independent Fabrication, Seven, Waterford, and Rodriquez. IF and Seven choose the tubing for you from the big manufacturers. Waterford uses True Temper OS2 and I can get a Rodriguez in True Temper OX Platinum. Can anyone tell me the difference between OS2 and OX Platinum?

Originally Posted by Waterford website

14-Series Vision OS2

TIG-welded OS2 technology frames using Waterford’s extensive palette of tubes can deliver everything you want and more. These frames offer impressive performance, combining light weight with tremendous strength.

• TIG-welded construction means the ability to create virtually any design imaginable. Our heat treated air-hardening alloys are specifically formulated to be TIG welded.
• We select each tube to match your specific needs and desires, factoring in your weight, desired handling, load capacity, riding habits and the expected terrain.
• Stainless steel dropouts come on virtually every OS2 design, whether it’s our standard road investment-cast vertical dropouts or track/fixed gear designs.
• We offer the full Waterford color palette with hundreds of stock finishes and nearly two dozen decal colors and styles. In addition, we offer a wide range of special finishes and special effects.

Originally Posted by Davet

It's been my experience with custom made for me bikes (5), is that I give the builder all my details; weight, measurements, fitting results, etc, tell him what kind of riding the bike will be used for and let him build the bike choosing the tubing he thinks is best for what I'm doing. The only thing I will control in the process is the color of the paint. This is all assuming your builder is skilled in doing that. The builders you've listed, with one exception, seem to be so.

Originally Posted by rando_couche

AFAIK, "OS2" IS OX platinum - just a specific set of diameter/wall thicknes specs that Waterford uses. Having owned and ridden a couple of Gunnar (Waterford's "economy" line) frames, one first-gen OS and the other OS2, I've found the OS2 to be a bit TOO stiff for my liking. And I'm not a small rider: 62cm frames, 6'3" and 180-200 lb. But then it seems I've always preferred "springier" frames, even in my racing days. That said, I highly recommend anything that Waterford builds. They know their stuff.

SP
OC, OR

Originally Posted by Gunnar website

Material

We rely on heat treated air-hardening steels for every Gunnar – mainly True Temper OX Platinum but also Reynolds 853. We order these alloys custom drawn to our rigorous specifications. We thoughtfully select the diameter and wall thickness of each tube to provide the right balance of strength, light weight, durability, and performance, according to the specific requirements of the style and size of your Gunnar.

Air-hardening alloys represent a significant advance in metallurgy. It is designed to be enhanced by TIG welding. “Air-hardening” refers to how the material responds to TIG welding. As it cools down, it becomes super-heat treated, but in a way that avoids becoming brittle in the weld zone. Traditional steel alloys, such as 4130 chromoly, embrittlement means that the joint (which receives the most stress on the bike) – is weaker than the parent tube. This limits how light a tubeset can be welded and still maintain structural integrity. Air-hardening alloys eliminate this problem and indeed the super-heat treated weld zones provide a nice balance with the heat treated parent tubes.

We didn’t stop there. We took advantage of these properties to develop a whole new system of tubes we call “OS2″. These tubes let us tune the ride the way we like at frame weights not possible with regular chromoly. It performs even better than the traditional tube dimensions using our air-hardening alloys.

By system of tubes we mean that we don’t just limit ourselves to one top tube, one down tube, etc. We instead offer a number of top tubes and downtubes, which we mix by size and application. This lets us provide you the same ride qualities throughout our range of sizes, so the big guys don’t have to live with wimpy frames. Also, we use heavier tubes for high-stress applications like anything off-road or unsupported touring.

The result are bikes that are a pleasure to ride, a pleasure to own and a great long-term investment.