Re: [CR] Reynolds 753 designations

(Example: Production Builders:Peugeot:PY-10)

Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 16:21:48 +0000
Subject: Re: [CR] Reynolds 753 designations
From: "Hilary Stone" <hilary.stone@blueyonder.co.uk>
To: "Bingham, Wayne R." <WBINGHAM@imf.org>, <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
In-Reply-To: <C868CB2D287CD04AACA367D51848C21408543F@mlsswn02p.WAS.INT.IMF.ORG>


R stood for Road in the 753 range. There was a T version too which stood for Track. Some special heavy duty sets were also made for mountain bikes, tandems and touring bikes. Tony Oliver made quite a few 753 tandems and tourers - I had one of his tourers for quite some time which was really rather nice. The earliest 753 sets made from 1975 used very thin wall thicknesses and were French metric sized. Sometime later - I think probably around 1980 or so they introduced Imperial sized 753 tubes and I am pretty certain that it was around then that they introduced 753R. 753T was the original ultra thin wall version in Imperial sized tubes. 753 R used pretty much the same wall thicknesses as 531SL (later known as 531Pro) and 653. But of course a properly constructed 753 frame would be likely to last a lot longer than one made from 531SL or 531Pro. 653 tubesets were supplied with as standard 753 chainstays and were supposed to be silver brazed to the bottom bracket shell. I know of one small/medium sized manufacturer in the UK that did not do this and they had quite a number of failures. But they also had plenty of failures elsewhere with their frames too - most publicly when one the BBAR (British Best All Rounder - a season long time trial competition based on the riders best results at 25, 50, 100 miles and 12 hours) winners was sponsored by them and a pair of forks broke whilst he was training causing him to have quite a serious accident.

Hilary Stone in warm but wet Bristol
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>>>> my recollection is that the "R" in 753R stands for Record and indicates
> an
> even lighter tube set - i.e. something to be used when
> building bikes for things like the Hour Record, time
> trials or ordinary frames for smaller professional
> cyclists like Robert Millar.
> But I could be wrong,
> Fred Rednor<<<
>
   Wayne Bingham replied:
> I seem to recall having a 753 variant CR discussion a while back, and never
> coming to any real conclusion. I have an '89 Merckx built with 753 (no
> letter designation). My weight fluctuates from the low 170's (in season) to
> low 180's (probably now), and I put many, many miles on the Merckx without a
> hint of problem. I also have an '85 Raleigh team frame and an '85 Trek
> track frame, both built with 753R. I haven't weighed the two frames but the
> Raleigh seemed lighter than the Merckx, if memory serves. Since the Raleigh
> and the Trek were both competition specific frames, I would assume that the
> R designation had something to do with "racing" frames, but who knows. I'd
> sure like to figure it out one of these days.