TrekWyoming

Question... I am new to these forums but it appears that everyone on this forum loves Reynolds 531 steel . I have a 1987 Trek 330 Elance with the 531 frame and I have to agree that is a very enjoyable ride. However, I find that my Trek 400 from 1988 with true temper goldern rc-1 chromoly is just as smooth and is actually an overall better performing bike. So whats the obsession with 531? Is it just "cool" to have or is there something that Reynolds has that TrueTemper does not? Just curious, thanks!

Picchio Special

They're both good tubing. Reynolds 531 has been around a lot longer than True Temper and thus has more history and many more fine bikes have been built from it. Much more goes into the ride and performance of a bike than the tubing type. There's more than one type of Reynolds 531. I could go on and on ...

unterhausen

this is C&V, so you are talking to a batch of collectors. 531 has a very long history. I can remember when I would look at a bike and unless I saw a 531 sticker I wouldn't be very interested.

There was a recent thread just like this in C&V. Too bad the search is so broken, we could find it.

I'm moving to C&V, I don't see how this can morph to a discussion of value

wrk101

+1 Reynolds 531 has name recognition like no other tubing out there. And many manufacturers used it on some of their highest end bikes.

Myself, in my keeper fleet right now, I have one Tange Prestige, one Tange Champion 1, one True Temper RCX, one True Temper OX, one Columbus Gilco, etc. I currently do not have a single Reynolds 531 bike.

I see a lot of love on this forum for Columbus SLX as well.

When I was growing up, a Reynolds 531 bike was just a dream, something I could never afford. Kind of like I always wanted a Corvette. I still haven't gotten a Corvette yet. I have owned a few 531 bikes, none my size.

auchencrow

I have a Trek in True Temper as well...
Perhaps some folks with more highly calibrated butts will counter me, but personally, I think it is indistinguishable 531 - but so too I have high regard for Ishiwata 022/4. Tange Champion, and Super Vitus. (I never had a bike in Tange Prestige)

It seems to me that when tubing is good, it's good, but Reynolds 531 is without a doubt the most highly sought after and recognized.

MKahrl

For bikes imported into the States in the 60's and 70's, most were thick walled steel. 531 could be found on the better English and French bikes at that time. For a major manufacturer with a complete line of bikes only the upper bikes would be 531 straight gauge and only their top of the line would be 531 double butted. There were good Japanese and Italian bikes made with good tubing but they weren't imported in the same quantities in the first wave of the bike boom in 1971. If you're looking at a barn find from that era a 531 indicates the frame was built just a little bit better.

By 1980 Japanese bikes had great tubing but by then those three green numerals had been engraved in the minds of an entire generation of riders.

cudak888 

As everyone has said before - True Temper doesn't have the snob appeal, while 531 and Columbus SL do - by virtue of longevity and history. Same story for Campagnolo vs. Suntour.

-Kurt

Sixty Fiver

When you see that green sticker you can usually be sure that you have found something a step above...

JohnDThompson 

Reynolds invented the butting process used on virtually all high end frames. Reynolds 531 is a seamless tube, while the True Temper is seamed. Seamless tubes are more expensive to make, while seamed tubes have a weld seam that represents a potential failure area. N.B. modern seamed tubes like the True Temper are cold drawn after welding to obliterate the weld seam and have very low failure rates.

In case you haven't seen this: https://www.velo-pages.com/main.php?g2_itemId=6468

Ride quality is more a function of frame design than material.

jimmuller 

531 isn't prime, but it is the product of three primes, 59, 3, and 3. True Temper isn't even a number. So there you have it.

nlerner

I wouldn't generalize from the OP's experiences with two bicycles to cover all 531 bikes. Also, the Trek Elance 330 is 531 main frame and cromoly steel fork and stays (or at least my '87 is). Another key factor, I've found, is the weight of the rider. At 160 lbs, I find lots of cro-moly frames to be too stiff and a bit dead feeling (including a True Temper Trek 830 I had and sold off). A full 531 frameset often (but not always) has a bit of flex, which I really like.

Neal

southpawboston

i have two bikes with full reynolds 531 frame/fork/stays, one bike with true-temper RC1 chromoly frame/fork/stays, and one bike with tange 2 chromoly frame/fork/stays. contrary to concensus, i find my two reynolds 531 bikes to have the harshest rides. granted, there are so many other variables that can influence ride quality, such as wheels, tires, saddle, handlebars and geometry. so, it's nearly impossible to do a direct comparison of frame materials without having two frames of different materials but the same size and geometry, built up identically. yet, in my fleet, the bikes with the true-temper and tange frames seems to have the smoothest, most supple and forgiving rides, and one of those bikes also happens to have the thinnest tires of the fleet, which generally runs counter to ride suppleness. those bikes also happen to have newer wheels that are in better condition than the ones on the reynolds bikes, and that may be a key difference. i've also found that having worn and/or improperly adjusted headsets and wheel hubs (generally any ball bearing surface on the bike) can contribute to degradation of ride quality.

Mike Mills

I have never seen a bad bike made from 531, ever.

Chombi

Reynolds 531 has been a "benchmark" tubing used for so long on "benchmark" frames, so the assumption had always been that most frames made from 531 tubing should be pretty good. A lot of other products carry this cachet so as to make them established choices for many. DT comes to mind when spokes are brought up. Mavic also comes to mind with rims. Campagnolo = derailleurs, Cinelli = stems and frames, Critical too is the way these manufacturers deliver consistently on good quality and that's what really makes the biggest difference, IMO.

Chombi

David Newton

In 1973, when I sold the Pug U-08 and bought the International, I though I'd died and gone to heaven. On a long quiet downhill, it would sing to me.

My friend calls this a camelot memory, never see it again.

Chombi

Funny, my much more humble Peugeot PH10S with it's "cooking" high tensile/high carbon Peugeot "Carbolite 103" tubing and internally brazed, lugless frame, also sang beautiful morning arias to me when I took it out on quiet morning rides in the 80's.........but it could be the nice Specialized Turbo VS tires and latex innertubes that sang the songs too!(?).......

Chombi

Bianchigirll 

Personally I am a Columbus girl I did have an Austro Daimler SL for a few years that was pretty nice but that was my only experience with it.

cudak888 

I have. A 1981 Raleigh Super Course 12, 20" center to top, 531 straight-gauge IIRC. Absolutely dead ride.

-Kurt

gaucho777 

A little off-topic, but...the only Reynolds frameset I've ridden is a 753r. Beyond a slight weight difference, has anyone who has ridden both 531 and 753 felt a noticeable difference?

KonAaron Snake 

I have both...I haven't noticed anything distinct enough for me to think it's tubing and not something else. The weight isn't very different either.

sykerocker 

A lot of the mystique, to Americans, is that the Paramount was built out of it. I remember comments in the bike shop that an International or Professional must be good bikes because they were made out of the same material as a Paramount. And the Super Course was the ne plus ultra to somebody on a low end budget because it was 531, even if it was straight gauge.

EjustE

Whatever everybody else said: 531 has been around for ever and a lot of people here collect and ride older bikes. In the 60s and 70s 531 (and SL) were the thing. True temper was not even around as such. I have a couple of True Temper framed bikes (one lugged another Tigged) and they are nice. Also rode a bike with the replacement of 531 (525 and the ride might even be better that 531, but it is newer and TIG welded). My bikes have frames made out of: 531, Columbus SL, Columbus Tenax (probably a mix of SL and SP at that size), Ishiwata 019, Tange 1, Tange db, Tange infinity. As far as weight goes, other than the latter 2, they are all about the same. Once you get into a double butter (or tripple butted) tubeset, the weight difference is less than that of a full large water bottle. I find that geometry, bike set up and component set up (double/tripple, ergos/STIs/DTshifters, bar shape, relation of saddle to bar height, tire size and kind etc) matter more for a ride than tubing at that higher end level of tubing. 30-40 lbs hi ten jobs are a different story.

dbakl

Reynolds 531 dates back to the late 30s; it was always a desirable frame material. Certainly other tubes make a perfectly enjoyable frame. I've always been hooked on 531, but my main ride is SLX, so who knows. I agree, the frame build probably makes as much difference as the tubing... I've had some 531 frames that were real dogs.

But a good one is a sweet thing to ride!

dbakl

Guess you've never seen a Sears Ted Williams... Not bad mouthing them, I have two, but it ain't no work of art.

Mike Mills

I'd bet the Ted Williams is better than every other Sears bike. It may not be a work of art but I bet it isn't a "bad" bike. What I remember was they did not have a very good set of components and the wheels weren't the best, either.