For a local friend, I'm trying to more accurately date a mid-latter 1980s Benotto he is building up. The frame is made of Columbus Matrix tubing, according to the decal on the forks which still have their original, full chromed finish. According to my friend, before the frame was repainted, it wore a netted looking paint finish on the top tube, which sounds like the infamous "Retinato", cross-hatch paint finishes of the mid-later 1980s.
I've looked through the archives and found thread after thread noting the following five points:
1) Matrix tubing is made of the same material as SL or SLX (Cr-Mo) for the road ... but it is seamed, welded, butted.
2) The Matrix name was already registered by Trek for one of their products, and in course, Columbus changed the name to Cromar.
3) Perhaps as early as 1986, a Matrix frame cost one half the amount of a top of the line SL or SLX frame, but twice as much as an Aelle tubed frame (Faggin frames were cited here). There is no mention of where Aelle-R falls in the hierarchy, but we will see in point #4 below, that it is lighter than plain Aelle.
4) A bit more modern but all inclusive Columbus spec sheet visible in PDF format at the Classic Rendezvous web site, shows the Matrix tube set to weigh 2190gm, as compared to SL at 1925gm, SLX at 1959gm, Aelle at 2345gm, and Aelle-R at 2257gm.
5) According to the same spec sheet above, where Matrix tubing was "new", it was designed "for exacting amateur cyclists who look for excellent performances combined to reasonable costs - butted". The same sheet lists Aelle-OR (off road?) as new too, if this helps in dating. Or perhaps, Meister Dale knows the date of that sheet?
Most everything else I read was opinion based, so I have not included it here. Other threads indicate that Matrix was introduced in the very late 80s, which contradicts the 1986 dated Faggin frame mentioned in point #3 above. I learned some time ago the Columbus MAX tubing was released in about 1989 or 1990, and there is no mention of this tube set in the CR PDF file, so I suspect the spec sheet is earlier than 1989.
I did not take photos of the Benotto frame, but it has bottle bosses on seat tube, internal top tube brake cable routing with quite minimally sized input and output reinforcement ports (or whatever they are called), and rear dropouts that are much smaller overall than the later Campagnolo 1010 short dropouts of our latter timeline. It also has a pump peg brazed onto the back side of the head tube.
So, my questions are: What is the official introduction year for Matrix tubing? When did it start to show up on bikes like this Benotto? Have I given enough info about this Benotto for any of you to please come up with a date, without seeing photos? Thanks in advance for any help!
Ciao,
Mark Agree
Southfield MI USA