On Mon, 16 Oct 2000 10:12:52 -0700 Marc Boral <mbikealive@earthlink.net>
writes:
>Hi Dale and CR,
> My early catalog refers to "4/10 Record". This
>refers to
>the 10 tubes used to make a frameset, not including the steerer.
i always assumed that the figures expressed this way referred
to the guage ratio, i.e. four tenths of a millemeter-this referring
to the wall thickness. SL tubing, being butted, would be called "
.9x.6x.9 ".
RECORD tubing was all straight guage, being " .5 ". that is, all tubes,
with the exception of the fork blades, were one-half a millimeter
in wall thickness throughout their length. i still believe that this
4/10 stuff refers to this, rather than how many of the 10 tubes
are from the RECORD kit. furthermore, there isn't anything that
could convince me that in the era these frames were made, that
a steel tube of 4 tenths of a millemeter in thickness, even if it was
just
only the middle section, not the entire guage, was used to make
any production frames.
RECORD tubing, at .5 mm in thickness was extremely hard to work
with, owing to it's fragile nature. it wasn't a different, stronger,
or harder material than SL. there was simply less of it. particularly,
the rear stays defied anything but your best white-glove assembly
procedures. short of getting the man himself to address this issue,
i speculate that between the super and the mexico, the differences
were mostly cosmetic: the then-new short campagnolo dropouts,
different stay-end treatments, increased use of engraved frame pieces,
updated graphics, more use ofplating...ultimately, with all
the pierced tubes, and gilco tubes, and stenciled paint jobs, the
differences
between the 2 models became more distinct. i think, originally though,
it was a fancier version of the 'same thing'. in a way, similar to the
masi special versus the masi gran criterium thing, only on a much
larger scale.
i also would like to add that i can think of no frame shops in that
era that would have used RECORD tubes to make frames in any
numbers to speak of. it was too much trouble. period. even by
today's standards, RECORD tubed frames would be lighter than
most other materials. not useful. but light.
my opinions...
e-RICHIE