Peter Brueggeman quotes an excellent article in Bicycle Guide about the Columbus Aelle frames being competitive and undistinguished from a Columbus EL-OS frame, which in bike legend is like comparing raisins to grapes, fool's gold to 24 karat, etc.
I have to agree in many cases, that geometry is almost the entire story in bicycle frame making. I am reminded of my first bike, a 21.5" raleigh grand prix. After almost 10 years of ownership, it was too small, and I somehow found a 23.5 raleigh grand prix, from 1 or 2 years later (1974 or 1975 vs. 1972), and I swapped out the frame. Same tubing exactly, same braze-ons, etc., but the 23.5" frame had a super-lively feeling and I instantly changed my impression about my old beater commuter and deeply regretted not doing it years sooner. I even had some regret about a higher-end 23" SEKAI 2500, (with db tange tubing) for 2x the money of the grand prix.
This is the flipside of the tubing-comparison test : same tubing, two different geometries of exactly the same bike.
- Don Gillies
San Diego, cA, USA