Columbus MS tubing

FINNEY1973 · Nov 22, 2015

Unwittingly picked up a frame that I assumed to be Columbus TSX but turns out to be MS. Not a huge amount of info out there on the interwebs; anyone got any info as to the why's? It's interesting but looks obscenely expensive to make the tubes and from what little bit there is on the interwebs there aren't too many examples so was it something that never really took off?

mdvineng · Nov 22, 2015

Re:

http://forums.roadbikereview.com/retro- ... 11537.html
http://astrocycloalpine.weebly.com/colu ... esets.html

Midlife · Nov 22, 2015

I'd never heard of it either so had to do some Google searching. It seems to have dissapeard from use in the same way that Reynolds Speedsream did.

Any pics?

Shaun

FINNEY1973 · Nov 22, 2015

Re:

:facepalm: Not sure my photography would help you visualise the shapes - however there's some good photos on flickr https://www.flickr.com/search/?text=col ... S%20TUBING

Lets just say the only round tube section is where the seatpost goes in.

Cheers mvdineng - those are some of the few written texts on MS.

Blackbike · Nov 22, 2015

Please post photos as that frame sounds like it would be quite a treat to see.

: Mike

danson67 · Nov 23, 2015

Columbus MS...a truly awesome "multishape Gilco design" tubeset from Columbus in 85/86. Nothing like it before or since.

Cromor steel, same as SL SLX etc, but the shaping was apparently the product of some of the first live stress testing of frames.
Good blog page from Anvil Bikes here.
Dedicated lugset, triangular LH chainstay. weird fat but ridged section main tubing, tapered seat tube....

All the best,

FINNEY1973 · Nov 23, 2015

Blackbike - plenty of work to do first in getting the frame polished and the BB shell re-painted. Not quite ready to be shown in public. No doubt a build thread will appear in the readers bike section at some point

Danson - the tubing is out there in terms of shapes and construction - particularly impressed by the Columbus BB shell.

danson67 · Nov 23, 2015

particularly impressed by the Columbus BB shell

Here for anyone who hasn't seen one:

All the best,

Midlife · Nov 23, 2015

Every day is a school day, never seen that before. Mind you I think it was about 1986 so a bit after my time

Shaun

FINNEY1973 · Nov 23, 2015

Re:

The green BB image is very smart - liking that colour a lot!

Referencing the tubing chart, and this is probably a dumb question but i'll plough on regardless, the seat tube: is the tube extruded to each frame size (or should I say total seat tube length) or is it a case of cutting sections to length that or as close as damn it to the chart?

Huge amount of effort if every tube was custom for a particular frame size.

Columbus MS tubing

FINNEY1973

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mdvineng

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Midlife

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FINNEY1973

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Blackbike

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danson67

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FINNEY1973

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