I've always found this issue pretty fascinating, and wondered about the motives and impetus for both. My '83 Stan Pike proudly sports red Reynolds SL stickers on the seat tube and fork blades. However, the original build sheet identifies that the top tube, seat tube and head tube are Reynolds, the forks Columbus and the down tube, seat and chain stays as SV, which I've interpreted as Super Vitus, probably 971. Stan didn't make a lot of frames in his life time (he died at 46). Most were custom, but some were "stock", and therefore built however Stan felt at the moment, I guess. Mine is a "stock" frame. I've always been fascinated and impressed in the way a frame builder will mix tubes to achieve certain characteristics. Why would a small builder feel the need to identify a frame with certain tubing stickers, when he clearly didn't want to use all the same tubes? A larger production concern might have "advertising" reasons, but not a small builder. This situation clearly varies, so it doesn't seem that it could be just "tradition".
Ideas from the collective brain trust?
Wayne Bingham
Falls Church VA