I think that this tube set was introduced by Reynolds in the early 80s, aro und 81/82 as that company's attempt to counter the Columbus "AIR" tubeset,, Ishiwata's Aero19, Atelier de la Rive's Super Vitus "Arcor" tubes and the AMR "Camus Aero 7". Perhaps Tange and Excell also had aero profiled tubes b ut I dont remember using them.
>From recollection the Speedsteam set adopted a fairly robust design a
nd section, more on the lines of the Ishiwata Aero19 tubes, rather the much
slimmer..and it has to be stated, much more flexible Vitus and Columbus. T
he tubes were elaborated from 531 stock and, as has been stated, the seat t
ube was left with a standard round opening to accept a 27,2mm pillar, where
as the French an Italian tubes needed dedicated ovalised ones.
I used only a handful of sets of Speedstream largely because customers pref erred the lighter and more profiled..hence more aerodynamic presumably..con tinental tubes.. However I recall that at one stage Columbus resorted to pu shing a length of gash mild steel round tube down the inside of the Air dow n-tubes in an attempt to stiffen that tube and prevent it from flexing. Thr Speedsteam D/T never sufferd from this problem and was in fact sufficientl y robust for me to use it in frames of the MKM Ultimate design, in which th e seat tube is joined to the down tube about 7" up from the bracket, in ord er to facilitate a much shorter wheelbase. I never had any breakages, but I wouldn't have trusted the Columbus and Vitus tubes with that same type of structure.
Norris Lockley, Settle UK
Norris Lockley
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