Columbus Aelle, any good?

[legrandefromage]

Re: Re:

Isn't the Aelle a seamed tube? Ok material but a crap(cheap) production method.

Like a rump steak binged in the microwave?

I personally think its along the lines of 3 half decent main tubes with the rest as plain gauge steel

Dont think its seamed though

Costcutter rump steak?

The ride will depend on how it was built anyway, Columbus and Reynolds decals dont guarantee anything.

*looking at the frames made with Aelle, I doubt it will be bad anyway.

 

[fettler]

Re:

Sure Aelle was welded before cold drawing so it might not be obviously seamed as it was done before shaping.

Doesn't matter if it's from Costcutter, it's a quality microwave

 

[NeilM]

Re:

My Concorde Astore is made of Aelle R; it is not heavy and rides beautifully.

It is a lot nicer to ride on many of the country roads around here than some of my frames made with more rigid tubsets.

Sometimes ride quality is more important than technical specifications.

 

[rogerzilla]

Re:

If you look at how double butted tubing is actually made, you can see why there has to be a cheaper alternative. Besides the blank tubing metal often being more expensive, the tubing has to be drawn around a mandrel and then opened up at one end to get the mandrel out, then re-rolled to the correct diameter again. There are a lot more steps and some very precision machines.

 

[danson67]

Plain gauge seamless carbon manganese....OK and out of a decent factory, but nothing special: Think 531 PG.



All the best,

 

[ferrus]

Re:

Too much emphasis is put on tube metallurgy - it's the design of the tubeset (butting, diameters etc) and appropriateness to intended use that most determines how a frame will perform. (And the frame builders skill and selection choices of course.)
The quality of the steel used is simply potential for the tube-design.

Nowt necessarily wrong with seamed tubing either... IIRC, True Temper make seamed tubesets and some of them are very nice pipes indeed.

 

[lazyrabbit]

Re:

My fixie is made from Aelle and I find it perfectly comfortable and fast. Though I'm used to steel MTB's.

 

[legrandefromage]

'I'm Spartacus and so's my wife!'

 

[danson67]

True Temper make seamed tubesets and some of them are very nice pipes indeed.

Yes, ALL of the true Temper tubes were welded seam then drawn, butted or not...nothing wrong with it as a method.
They have just stopped making bike tubing (June 30th) to concentrate on other markets, but two other US manufacturers are still going:.

The excellent seamed and drawn butted stainless tubing from KVA Stainless, who have a long history in general high quality tube production.


And Vari-wall cold drawn seamless. These guys made the machines which True Temper used, and later drew millions of aluminium and steel butted tubes for Klein, Cannondale, GT Fisher, and Huffy and Schwinn at the lower end, since 1985.

All the best,