T Joe Worgs

Hi Bargainguy,
Adding to the old thread here.
Great job in cleaning it up. And thanks for post pics. I pulled a Sanwa 215 small bike out of a yard sale a couple years ago circle 2018. It is missing all the components; breaks and shifters; It only has a rusty chain and cranks. Your photos show how it would been outfitted. Thanks!

ramzilla

Dear oddjob2, Haven't seen many post from you lately. Hope your doing well during these crazy times. I'm doing fine. Sold the house in Stone Mountain & moved to Fernandina full time. Still running used bikes out of the garage. But, have a much smaller workspace. And, way fewer bikes. Managed to get $455 for this one a few weeks ago. It's all good. Be well. Have fun.

aland2

In marketing terms maybe.

I've chewed this over and still can't understand why well documented empirical data should be looked at in any particular context. Metallurgy is science not religion or politics or marketing. Tange 2 is just as good as 531.

T-Mar

If you restrict yourself to weight and wall thickness, you're not seeing the full picture. For instance, during the era in question, Tange had a 900 tubeset with the same CrMo alloy and the same wall thicknesses as #2 , except for the head tube. Weights for the tubes, except the head tube and chain stays (which had a different taper) were very similar. In fact, the three main tubes were identical by wall thickness and weight. Slightly later, Tange introduced Infinity, which was almost the exact same story. Infinity and 900 were spec'd with components like Shimano Z-series and Light Action. Would you call that high end and say that Tange 900 and Infinity were high end tubesets? I wouldn't.

Also, when you're comparing it to Reynolds 531, to which version are you referring? 531 was a steel alloy. During the period in question, there were several versions of 531 tubesets. I'll assume you're talking about 531C, which was the standard/most common set. If you wanted lighter, there was 531 Professional. If you wanted lighter and stronger there was 753R. So, even in the Reynolds hierarchy, 531C wasn't the top end tubeset. Due to Reynolds pricing policies, it didn't filter quite as far down the bicycle product lines as Tange #2 , but it still wasn't being relegated to the top models. 531C would progressively get knocked further down the ladder by newer tubesets such as 653 and 853.

The same thing happened at Columbus. Through the mid 1970s, SL was the top tubeset. Then it got nudged out of top spot by KL. It got shoved down another step with the introduction of SLX/SPX Then Columbus gave us Max, TSX and MS, so that by 1988 SL was 5th in the product line.

The fact of the matter is, as time rolls on better products are introduced and the surviving products get bumped further the product line. The product itself may not have changed but ensuing advancements have reduced its stature and it is offered at progressively lower price points.