"Louis Schulman" <louiss@gate.net> writes: How common (or rare) are double-taper seat stays? On my 1983 Holdsworth Professional (Reynolds 531 Professional tubes) the seat stays have their largest diameter at the brake bridge, and taper both to the dropouts and to the seat cluster. It seems to me that such tubes would be particularly difficult to make. What other tube sets used them?
lou
i've used them on almost all my frames since 1978. currently,
i get them custom made from dedaccai. typically, the reynolds
version has only been available in lengths that are too long.
as such, the truly visual beauty of the biconical shape is lost.
columbus, vitus, and dedaccai offers these to order in lengths
as short as 490mm and as long as 580mm; these choices allow
the ordering of a proper length for the frame size to be
constructed. i'm not aware of how the tubes are formed. i assume
they're rolled into shape from pre-existing seat stays. that way
they have more mojo than if they were born as double-tapered stays
from the git-go.
e-RICHIE
chester, ct