Folks,
It is, indeed, the design of the bike that makes the difference. I have always been impressed by the family resemblance and similarly "light and lively" feel of my UO-18 Mixte (with its seamless high- carbon steel Peugeot tubing) to that of my long-gone PX-10LEs. My Peugeot mixte is nimble in traffic, comfortable, and it remains relatively "graceful" under load--even with 30-60 pounds and four panniers' worth of drywall mudd, gallons of paint, and tools from the hardware store or potatoes, apples, sweet potatoes, and oranges (10# bags) from the Farmer's Market.
That said, I deeply appreciate the feel of a light, lively, and well- designed frame made out of top-level Reynolds or Vitus double-butted steel, even if I am much less a rider than the bike was designed for. (There is NOTHNG like the confidence-inspiring feel of my Eisentraut's remarkable downhill stability, which is far from taxed at 40-plus MPH...Wahoo!)
Jon Spangler
Starting to dream of a far-off and future made-to-measure frame made with metric Reynolds 531 tubes, great downhill tracking/stability, and a French "limber stage race feel" in Alameda, CA USA
On Jan 16, 2009, at 4:08 PM, <classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org>
<classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org> wrote:
> Message: 14
> Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:08:16 -0800
> From: Norris Lockley <norris.lockley@yahoo.com>
> Subject: [CR] Columbus Aelle tubing
> To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
> Message-ID: <767249.69209.qm@web44914.mail.sp1.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
>
> This tubing was the odd man out in the Columbus range of tube
> sets. All of the other sets such as SL. SLX, TSX, MS during the 80s
> and 90s were made from chrome-molybdenum Cyclex steel, the Cromor
> set was made from chrome-molybdenum..but the AElle was made from
> carbon manganese. Reynolds 531 was made from molybdenum manganese.
>
> There were two types of Aelle - the basic AELLE plain gauge - with
> 0.8 wall thickness for the main tubes and then there was the AELLE
> R range that was double-butted. The PG series weighed in at 2345
> gms a set (usually calculated on a set to build a 55cm frame) and
> the DB set weighed slightly less at 2257 gms. These weights put the
> series not far off the weight of a set of Reynolds 531DB
>
> There used to be a set called ZETA that was the base set of the
> range, until the Cromor set arrived..a copy of Reynolds 501 ..or
> was that the other way around..both of which were launched as
> rivals to Ishiwata Magny-V. At that point the ZETA was dropped.
> Aelle continued then to be the base set until the very useful GARA
> set was introduced.
>
>
> Norris Lockley - Settle UK
>
>
>
>
Jon Spangler
Writer/Editor
Linda Hudson Writing
510-864-0370/FAX 864-2144
MOBILE 510-846-5356
hudsonspangler@earthlink.net