amediasatex wrote:I had 5 mins on my hands...
Above and beyond, but very interesting, thanks.
amediasatex wrote:I had 5 mins on my hands...
PH wrote:amediasatex wrote:I had 5 mins on my hands...
Above and beyond, but very interesting, thanks.
Thorn Audax Mk3 forks for 57mm brakes, unknown tubing with low-rider braze-ons AND two lower sets of braze ons, 1 1/8th a head steerer ~220mm long = 945g
amediasatex wrote:PH wrote:amediasatex wrote:I had 5 mins on my hands...
Above and beyond, but very interesting, thanks.
It was as much for my benefit as anyone else
One fork I do want to weight at some point is the one on the front of my Dave Yates built 653 Condor, I don't know what blades it uses but it is the best riding fork I've ever had, it's sublime and very springy, I'm curious to know it's weight and one day I'll pull it out and find out.
NetworkMan wrote:amediasatex wrote:PH wrote:Above and beyond, but very interesting, thanks.
It was as much for my benefit as anyone else
One fork I do want to weight at some point is the one on the front of my Dave Yates built 653 Condor, I don't know what blades it uses but it is the best riding fork I've ever had, it's sublime and very springy, I'm curious to know it's weight and one day I'll pull it out and find out.
Re the experiment with Spa CF vs Thorn plain-vanilla. Did you find that there was a noticeable difference in ride quality? I partly wish I hadn't cannibalized my Dawes Audax to build the Spa Ti bike - It would have been interesting to compare the Reynolds 531c and 1" steerer with the Spa CF and 1.125" steerer. Perhaps after a few more tweaks to the Spa I'll have released most of the components to put the Dawes back together again!
NetworkMan wrote:Re the experiment with Spa CF vs Thorn plain-vanilla. Did you find that there was a noticeable difference in ride quality? I partly wish I hadn't cannibalized my Dawes Audax to build the Spa Ti bike - It would have been interesting to compare the Reynolds 531c and 1" steerer with the Spa CF and 1.125" steerer. Perhaps after a few more tweaks to the Spa I'll have released most of the components to put the Dawes back together again!
PH wrote:Thorn claim Reynolds make theirs exclusively for them. I have no reason to doubt them, some of the other tubes in my Thorn 853 frame are not listed either.
slowster wrote:If Reynolds do make lighter/thinner tubes than those in that list, I suspect that they will only be purchased by (and may only even be available to) a small number of true custom builders
amediasatex wrote:I was thinking along opposite lines, namely that you'd only be able to get custom product if you were willing to place an order big enough for them to bother (custom) making it?
On the other hand if they have stock of unlisted/custom product sitting on shelves then presumably anyone they supply to can purchase it if it's there and not reserved for anyone?
531colin wrote:NetworkMan wrote:amediasatex wrote:
It was as much for my benefit as anyone else
One fork I do want to weight at some point is the one on the front of my Dave Yates built 653 Condor, I don't know what blades it uses but it is the best riding fork I've ever had, it's sublime and very springy, I'm curious to know it's weight and one day I'll pull it out and find out.
Re the experiment with Spa CF vs Thorn plain-vanilla. Did you find that there was a noticeable difference in ride quality? I partly wish I hadn't cannibalized my Dawes Audax to build the Spa Ti bike - It would have been interesting to compare the Reynolds 531c and 1" steerer with the Spa CF and 1.125" steerer. Perhaps after a few more tweaks to the Spa I'll have released most of the components to put the Dawes back together again!
My money is on the 531c 1" steerer being much more compliant than a modern carbon fork. (Are you confident it is all 531c, not just main tubes?)
slowster wrote: If Reynolds do make lighter/thinner tubes than those in that list, I suspect that they will only be purchased by (and may only even be available to) a small number of true custom builders, and that even those custom builders would only order such tubes in preference to a standard tube if they were essential for a particular customer, e.g. a very petite lightweight female rider or an extremely tall rider.
slowster wrote:As you say, we need an insider. I suspect Reynolds deliberately do not publish details of non-standard tubing because they do not want inexperienced framebuilders using it and they (and the top framebuilders) do not want customers asking for it, since most customers would not know whether it was appropriate for them and would only be asking because it's 'special' and the 'best' (just as many want 953 because it's the 'best', even though it might not be suitable for them and their use). Publicising the existence of such tubing would also undermine the marketing cachet of a brand having tubes custom drawn for them, because it would highlight the fact that frames built with such custom drawn tubesets are unlikely to be true custom frames.
NetworkMan wrote:A few clues re the 853 Thorn fork in the mega brochure:-
"Reynolds made the 853c blades and lightweight 853 steerer especially for us Reynolds even made the tooling for the tight-radius bend that I’d requested."
My reading of that is that Reynolds make them a fork (remember Thorn don't weld/braze themselves anymore) using off the shelf parts and bend the blades to Thorn's profile. I just don't believe that an off the shelf steerer would not be good enough. Tony Oliver says that 753 can't be cold set and I suspect that 853 can't either. Note that it does not say that Reynolds made the tooling to cold draw (or however they make 'em) a butted fork blade to Thorn's own design.