Tom Harriman <transition202@hotmail.com> wrote: .hmmessage P { margin:0px; padding:0px } body.hmmessage { FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY:Tahoma } Hi Jerry. History repeated itself in the late 1980's and early 1990's. When the cold war ended allot of aviation people went looking for other industries that could use there skills, and found a home in the bicycle business. The early 1990's is when the first carbon fiber frames, titanium components, and other "aero" assisted items started showing up in bike shops. In fact, I recall one of the first Kestrel adds telling us the bike had been designed by rocket scientist. Silly, but true.
Tom:
What you're saying makes sense in general, but I'll point out that CF bikes were around from the early 1970's, though in small numbers. They were common by the late 80's, before the collapse of the USSR. The thing I've heard about the end of the cold war is that it freed up either raw titanium or titanium tubing (it was never clear to me which) and this allowed for an explosion of ti-tubed framesets in the very early 1990's. (We all remember those bikes because they were always owned by a guy saying "the last bike I'll ever buy.." all those guys seem to have CF frames now, because while the Ti bikes were still in fine shape they were no longer cool.) The other event that is said to have contributed to the 90's Ti boom was the decline of the nuclear power industry in the USA, tough this is probably impossible to seperate form the reductions in nuclear weapons manufacture. It is telling that Litespeed was based in Chattanooga, not too far from Oak Ridge. I have heard that Litespeed hired skilled welders out of the nuclear industry.
Tom Harriman <transition202@hotmail.com> wrote: There other contribution was to bring modern CNC machining to the manufacturing of bike parts, which is a big reason we saw so much improvement in the 1990's. Overall, I'm grateful to these people for there good works.
Tom,
CNC!!!! Eeek!!!! Okay, maybe I'm just clueless, but when I think of CNC, I think of all that dreadful 1990's small batch manufacturing that gave us Kooka cranks, Paul's derailleurs and the like. It started in the MTB market and infected the road market. All the parts had that look.... start with a block of alloy (always 7075-T7!) , and carve away everything that doesn't look like a crank (or der, or brake....). The results were not only completely lacking in grace or elegance, but they also just kinda sucked. I think Shimano put it best in one of their ads that read something like: "Yes, we make CNC machined parts from aluminum alloy billet. We call them prototypes." I think declinig costs of CNC equipment was the pathway that allowed a lot of self-annointed parts engineers to make expensive junk on a small scale. Quaility bike parts are better made using hot pressing, or forging techniques that bring the part close to final shape prior to machining. CNC parts, if forged, are forgeed as billet, so in final shape there is no relatioinship between the shape/streeses, and the grain/crystal structure. That's my understanding anyway. Seems to me that CAD and CAM have been a benefit, but CNC in particular, or at least in my restricted definition thereof, is a scurge best left for making blocky custom wheels at Orange County Choppers.
Tom Dalton Bethlehem, PA USA
> Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 12:35:41 -0800
> From: jerrymoos@sbcglobal.net
> Subject: Re: [CR]Re: When did aluminum become reliable?
> To: Philcycles@aol.com; heine94@earthlink.net; tom_s_dalton@yahoo.com; classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
>
> No coinicidence at all. Lots of companies were involved in both aircraft and bicycle manufacturing or parts thereof. Lots more individuals came to work in the bicycle industry with skills acquired in the aviation industry.
>
> As the cutting edge of technology between the world wars, aviation spun off technology to lots of other industries, just as the American and Russian space programs after WWII spun of technologies in titanium manufacturing, electronics, computing, etc. Not sure about carbon fibre. Did this originate in the space industry before it became so prevalent in Formula One?
>
> Regards,
>
> Jerry Moos
> Big Spring, TX
>
>
>
> Philcycles@aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 1/21/08 9:35:05 AM, heine94@earthlink.net writes:
>
>
> > My initial point was that many 1930s aluminum alloy parts appear to
> > have been reliable - not 100% (but what is?), but reliable enough to
> > find widespread acceptance. The 1930s also appear to have been the
> > time when aluminum alloys first saw widespread use in high-end
> > bicycles.
> >
>
> It cannot be a coincidence that aircraft use of aluminium became wide spread
> in the 30s. Remember also that 531 was originally developed for aircraft use
> in the 30s.
> Phil Brown
> Cold and wet in Berkeley, Calif.
>
>
> **************
> Start the year off right. Easy
> ways to stay in shape.
>
> http://body.aol.com/
>
>
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