It’s a nice tubeset and all… But $670!
eBay Australia: Buy new & used fashion, electronics & home d
And I misspelled the title…
Fixed.
I was watching, but it went out of my budget. Would love to rock up to a builder with this and order a custom frame, I’ve heard a few say that 531 is an absolute joy to work with
isn’t 531 just reynolds’ name for standard 4130 double butted cro-mo?
Maybe. But there were lots of different 531 tubesets for different applications. The advertised one was one of the superlight racing ones, from what I can tell (which isn’t much). there’s a chart somewhere that goes into all of the different properties etc of reynolds tubing, but I can’t be arsed finding it right now.
531 was actually Mn-Mo not Cr-Mo, as England didn’t have Cr reserves. Strengthwise, 853 is 50-100% stronger (not stiffer), and 953 is 100-200% stronger.
531SL was a lighter version of the regular tubeset, (that said, still ~2kg for the set), replaced by 531 Professional. There were plenty of varieties, here’s a few:
531ATB - Designed for Mountain, All terrain, Off road
531C - Competition Racing tubeset. Road racing, track, time trial and cyclo-cross.
531CS - Club Sport Double butted main tubes
531Magnum - Same use as ATB
531OS - Oversize tubeset
531 Professional - Superseded 531SL, for road racing and time trials.
531SL - Special lightweight (SL) tubeset
531 Speed Stream - 531SL Oval shaped aerodynamic tube
531ST - Special Touring tubeset
531 Super Tourist - Superseded ST.
Man where would the answers come from with out you Blakey. Seems a bit step for the quality of the tube set but I know nothing of what people will pay for the older stuff would have thought you could buy 853 or similar tange tube for less but I could be wrong.
There was a set of 753 that ended at about the same time that went for less than $250
753 had a reputation of having quite a few tubing failures. That, combined with the fact it’s hard to work with (must be done with silver and really well aligned, cos cold setting 753 is a no-no), and I can understand why folks weren’t bidding high.
For sure. Shit loads of nuovo-builders around, evidently not many with the skills to build well with 753. And, in the words of someone who knows, if 4130 was discovered tomorrow, itd be thought of as the next big thing in tubing.
I heard a story about 753 that Reynolds would check your work before you could buy the tube sets from them.
My kenevans ticked the box then 
853 would be oversize (larger diameter) and only suit later lug styles compared to regular gauge 531. Old tubing and lugs has been getting quite expenisve, especially as people are trying to restore crashed frames or make replica’s of their dream bikes that are now so expensive it’s cheaper to make a “new” one.
I agree about Blakey … he’s the man. One day we’ll all pay tickets to listen to Blakey give a dissertation on Young’s Modulus and the properties of bicycle tubing. Well, I would.