Raleigh and Carlton were pretty careful with selecting the tube gauges to suit the size of the frame certainly on their higher end ones - the larger frames used heavier gauge tubing and chunkier seatstays even sometimes. But perhaps the best example of this Gazelle in Holland. In a Fiets magazine test from about 1996 Fiets tested in a laboratory the stiffness (BB, head tube etc) of the complete size range of one model Gazelle road frame. The frames were progressively stiffer as the size went up... From memory I think the very largest sizes used an 1 1/8in top tube as well as increased wall thickness.
I don't know about other makers though at the old Merlin factory (off topic of course) they did exactly the same thing with heavier gauges and increased tube diameters on the Ti frames produced in the mid 1990s.
Hilary Stone, Bristol, England
Fred Rafael Rednor wrote:>
> Are those decals really that significant or is it just a case
> of "badge engineering"? Richard Sachs was (and probably still
> is) fond of reminding us that 531 is a _material_ and typical
> frame builders could and would use different gauges depending
> on any number of factors.
>
> Certainly that's the case for smaller shops. What would the
> story be for someone like Carlton or Raleigh?