Whats wrong with stamped dropouts? (vs. forged?)

[otherself]

I know that forged dropouts such as Campy, Simplex, Zeus and Gipiemme among others, are a sign of a high quality steel frame, and I know stamped dropouts and fork ends are seen on more lower models of 60's/70's and some 80's bikes, but does that mean they are bad? A lot of frames with stamped dropouts have gaspipe hi-tensile tubes... which I wouldn't even have in my house, but i've seen them on decent good tubesets such as 4130 cromo, Ishiwata, Columbus Zeta, Columbus Aelle...and also on some Reynolds 531 Dawes Galaxy touring bikes etc, which confuses me. :?

Stamped ones are usually cut thinner, does that mean weaker or more flexible?

Stamped or "pressed steel" as they are also known

Forged

 

[Diamant_Don]

Stamped drop-outs are supposedly weaker, no? Having said that, I've never come across a case of drop-out failure, stamped or forged, so I'm guessing it's mainly a stylistic issue. Forged drop-outs do look a bit nicer...

 

[Midlife]

Thin dropots make it difficult for QR skewers as the axle can protrude beyound the dropout..........so you tighten against the axle and not the dropout so the wheel is loose.

Then there's the problem of having an adjustment screw on a stamped dropout.......

Shaun

 

[otherself]

Then there's the problem of having an adjustment screw on a stamped dropout.......

Shaun

They are too thin to have an adjustment screw?

My 80's Atala has stamped drops and has 'grubbin' bolts instead of pins.

 

[originalshinkicker]

As Shaun said, they are normally a problem for QR axles as they are too thin, to use a QR axle with them, the end of the axle can only be a couple of threads past the end of the locknut. They are typically seen on bikes with solid axle hubs for that reason. As they are pressed and not forged, they can obviously keep the cost of frame production down.

The adjustment bolts that fit into the dropout slot don't give anywhere near as much adjustment as a dropout adjuster.