Raleigh 531 'Main tubes' - what steel used -seat/chain stay?

Cossington · Mar 7, 2011

Can anyone throw any light on this steel Raleigh query, please?

I know that a number of Raleighs were built with 531 'main tubes', but using other steel for the seat and chain stays.
What other steel was used for the stays, in these cases? Was it 'gas-pipe', 20-30 carbon steel, plain gauge of some kind or generally something a little better (eg 501, perhaps?)?

Also, I assume 'main tubes' means - seat, down, top and head -tubes. Is this correct?
Any insights welcomed. I've reviewed a few catalogue scans, but they don't mention the lesser steel used.

Thanks in advance,

David

latman · Mar 7, 2011

surely the seat ,top and down tubes are the "main tubes" not the head tube (or BB or the stays/fork blades)

Cossington · Mar 7, 2011

Latman,

Thanks for the info regarding which are designated 'main tubes' - your comment makes sense to me.

Regards,

David

latman · Mar 7, 2011

I may be wrong but that is (the minimum) what I would expect main tubes to mean.

bikemeister2000 · Mar 7, 2011

Yep, 3 tubes are Top, Down and Seat.

Cossington · Mar 7, 2011

Thanks for the confirmation of what is meant by the 'main tubes'.

Now, I'd be very interested to know what grade of steel(s) would have been used to make the secondary tubes, where it wasn't 531?

Regards,

David

keithglos · Mar 7, 2011

Raleigh "gas pipe" was electric seam welded, and labelled 2030 (I remember 2028 ) high carbon steel. This was the standard heavyweight material used in the "all steel bike". Certain export markets believed the catalogues. There were worse examples of tubing, for example most of the Italian early 1950's were heavier. If you get a chance, feel the weight of a Bianchi racer from those days. At least raleigh could chrome plate, retailing fiorelli in the 1950's we coined the word "rustissimo", and made comments like "you didn't take it out in the rain did you?".

spark303 · Mar 10, 2011

The other tubes were whatever Raleigh's Hi-tensile steel was at the time - I've got a 1949 Clubman with 531 main tubes and 2030 forks and stays, and a 1983 Royal with 531 main tubes/forks and 18-23 steel stays. The catalogues during the 80's did give this info -like this from 1984 for example

Cossington · Mar 10, 2011

That is very helpful. Thanks for the various replies.
Bulgier is a great source of info - I suspect the Raleigh catalogues I've looked at were all from the 1970's and seemed to have pictures of bikes and tank tops, but only selected technical info.

Regards,

David

Raleigh 531 'Main tubes' - what steel used -seat/chain stay?

Cossington

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latman

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Cossington

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latman

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bikemeister2000

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Cossington

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keithglos

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spark303

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Cossington

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