Very much so - there still seems to be this romantic view that nothing will ever surpass Reynolds 531 - sorry but 531 is long since obsolete (it's is still made in very small amounts to special order by Reynolds to cater for repairs to old machines but that is it); no builder would ever offer to knock up something new in 531 now and most would probably refuse to build a frame with this:Cugel wrote: ↑16 Aug 2022, 9:17am There seems to be rather a lot of romanticism, nostalgia and other human emotions involved when judging bicycle types and materials. Perhaps these feelings exert themselves to such a degree that those feeling them have their more physical feelings altered as part of the experience?
rather arbitrary and frankly nonsensical restriction. I'm not even sure why that has been chosen - is there some amazing advantage to those dimensions that I've missed?To be clear, by light tourer I mean a steel frame with (certainly in the medium and smaller sizes) a 1" steerer, 1" top tube and 1 1/8" down tube, clearance for ~35mm tyres with mudguard
[Note - that's not to say that 531 frames are "bad" - they're not and I know there are of course many still being ridden or kept for nostalgia purposes. It's just that things have moved on a bit in much the same way that you can't walk into a car dealer and buy a Morris Minor]
As mentioned upthread, there are a number of bikes that tick the boxes of "light tourer" in steel, aluminium and titanium certainly - Genesis, Cotic, Sonder, Enigma and I'm sure if you looked long enough you'd probably find something in carbon since it's perfectly possible to put bottle, rack and mudguard mounting points into carbon.
From a mainstream manufacturer, the entry level aluminium Specialized Diverge is another example...