    12/16/2005  So a lot of you have heard the hype about the new Reynolds 953. Well if your wondering yes I will be building with it, although it may be a fit with only a few of you. Here’s the skinny: 953 is a stainless alloy butted tube made for Reynolds by Carpenter Technologies, USA. For those of you that have been around a while you may remember Carpenter for the Aermet tubes that saw very limited application in the bicycle industry about 10 years ago due to it’s difficulty to work with. 953 will offer some of the incredible strength and weight saving properties of Aermet as well as corrosion resistance, while solving problems with fabrication. To address the hardness issue Reynolds is offering the material in either an annealed state or in it’s hardened state. This will allow builders to use it without going to extreme measures, but will require heat-treating after the frame is built adding costs. To give you an idea of just how strong 953 is, the average tensile strength of 4130 chromoly is about 60KSI, the strongest material we typically see use in bicycle tubes is 180 KSI and 953 is up to 290KSI! So who is 953 right for? If you want lightness and durability titanium is probably the way to go unless you’re a die-hard steel fan. With the extremely thin wall (down to .3mm) of the 953 denting and buckling may be an issue especially if your hard on your bike but we have yet to see. Due to the cost of the material and heat-treating a 953 frame will be every bit as expensive as titanium. If you’re a person that just loves steel or wants a lugged or fillet brazed frame or just wants the polished luster of a stainless frame that is as light as steel can be, 953 is probably the choice for you. [close] |
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