Orbit ventura

[Ke1th]

Hi,I have an orbit Ventura. The sticker on the frame says Reynolds 531,however the frame is not lugged. Also any info I can find on this model suggests it is 520. Can anyone shed any light on this please?

[foxyrider]

One of my bikes! (I had a big hand in speccing and developing the Ventura to replace the old Silver Medal models)

Someone - not at the factory, has clearly added the 531 decal! The Ventura was indeed made from 520 tubing (well some used 525 which is the same stuff from a different factory) Reynolds were/are very cagey in supplying decals and the Ventura very rarely got one as the frames, although designed in Sheffield and painted in Wigan were made in Taiwan - we never received decals with the bare frames and couldn't source any from Reynolds.

To be clear, 531 isn't really suitable for tig welding (you have to silver 'solder' to get a reliable joint), 520 series were developed for lugless construction - pretty similar properties but subtly altered to allow easy welding.

So your frame isn't 531 but unless you got an electron microscope out no one will ever know for sure - well unless they read this! Lol

[Ke1th]

Thanks for a very interesting reply I expected something like that. Whatever it's made from it is a sweet riding bike. One of my favourites.