Reynolds 531 Magic Tubing

[faber26]

Hi everyone,
I recently got hold of an old Peugeot Eden Rock frameset, Reynolds 531 tubing, made in France - at least that's what is written on the frame

I have built it originally "just for fun" but now I cannot ride with anything else! The riding experience is just fantastic, it even beats the best titanium bikes I could ride.

Would you know where I could find more information about the Reynolds 531 tubing? Is it still produced by Reynolds? If not, what would be the closest equivalent today? I'm so impressed with this frame I'm considering a custom build!

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

531 is no longer made but ran from the 30's as high manganese tubing, not sure when they stopped possibly early 2k, loads of 531 frames about. Beware of mis representation. Hope this helps. 631 is the closet now.

 

[faber26]

Yep, thanks! I thought so ... It will be quite hard to replicate the nice Eden Rock ride since it is certainly a combination of great alloy (531) but also specific tubing characteristics (butting, diameter, etc.) I have seen that today's "equivalent" to 531 would be 520 but I had several frames built with 520 and in my view it doesn't compare.

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

520 is not equivalent to 531 as you say.

 

[faber26]

I am no specialist, I've just found this on the 531 Wikipedia page: "The most common like-for-like replacements for 531 are Reynolds 520 and 525 ..."

 

[KermitGKona88]

First of all we need pictures of this magical beast or it didn't happen... Secondly those websites are probably talking about the tubings frame building properties, iirc 631 is air hardened which is a different process to 531. I always thought 525 was 531's evolution, but with so many 531 variants anyway 531sl, 531pro, 531C, 531ST, 531 magnum... It is hard to tell.

 

[faber26]

Here are the pics, please don't laugh at my neo retro build!

 

[KermitGKona88]

Hey, no laughing here it is a case of saving them any way we can... Looks like a cool ride. So the frame is 531 Magnum tubing which was an oversized (larger diameter) tubing. 631os

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

iirc 631 is air hardened which is a different process to 531

Spot on, more like Accles and Polock. Neither 520 or 525 tubes are as good as 531 in my opinion.

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

That is a nice bike