Reynolds 531SL Speedstream

I've a frame and forks made of ovalised tubing which I've been trying to identify.

It's badged-up as Ian May (a now defunct shop in Wirral) and the paint, despite being pretty shoddy, appears original but there is no Reynolds sticker on it.

The seat tube is 27.2mm which indicates a good quality tubeset and Speedstream seems the obvious contender, but the Reynolds literature says it is intended for lugless frames and mine is lugged.

Any suggestions?

Interesting bike, you don't see many Ian May's around. He was a bit of a quirky builder who seemed to experiment a bit. A friend has got a time trial bike with all twin tubes (top, down and seat). He sadly died young.

Is your tubing only 'flattened' in the centre of each tube? If so this would allow the use of lugs. There's always the possibilty of course that Ian got standard tubing 'squashed' to make them 'aero' when the fashion started and before the mainstream Reynolds, Columbus, Ishiwata etc. tubing became generally available. Plenty of small engineering companies on the Wirral to do this.

Looking forward to reading other comments

Never thought about the tubes being squashed in the middle, good bit of lateral thinking there Ned Edward de Bono would be proud of you..

The lugs look like standard Prugnat fare and indeed the tubes do look round where they meet the lugs.

Shaun

Yes, the tubes are round at either end. I had assumed that all aero tubing was like this to ease construction.

Something else that might suggest a DIY aero job, is that there wasn't enough round seat tube to accept 65mm of seat post. When purchased (as in the picture) it had a 26.4mm post (and a badly squashed clamp); I've had it reamed and it now has a 27.2mm post.

If he did get the tubes squashed himself that would explain the lack of a Reynolds sticker.

It's interesting to learn that he was a frame builder; I haven't found out much about him apart from the existence of a shop; I was under the impression that bikes were built elsewhere and just badged-up.

My favourite detail is the centrally mounted shifters: a pair of Gipiemme "coke spoons", beautiful to hold and incredibly smooth!

Didn't Raleigh use a steel "Aero Profile" tubing with oval lugs on some of their Panasonic sprayed up frames...seat and down tube ovalised ?

Slightly later than my area of knowlege though.

Shaun

ScillySuffolk":1hjc2b5h said:

I've a frame and forks made of ovalised tubing which I've been trying to identify. It's badged-up as Ian May (a now defunct shop in Wirral) and the paint, despite being pretty shoddy, appears original but there is no Reynolds sticker on it. The seat tube is 27.2mm which indicates a good quality tubeset and Speedstream seems the obvious contender, but the Reynolds literature says it is intended for lugless frames and mine is lugged. Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

Hiya,

this is not Speedstream, as mentioned by others Speedstream was designed for lugless construction and is oval and symmetrical, i.e not a different shape over it's length.

Speedstream is an interesting tubeset but is relatively heavy (i.e heavier than regular 531) - Speedstream is NOT SL.

Raleigh did make low end bikes with oval tubing but this was nothing special but Hi -Ten.

I recently sold (not on here) a very nice Mercian built in this tubeset (Speedstream of course).

Hope this helps.

Roadking.

Thanks Roadking.

Yeah, that was my point, that Speedstream was for lugless builds but mine was lugged.

This confused me until it was pointed out that the tubes could have been squashed by a local engineering company for the frame builder.

This theory seems to be borne out by the fact that i) it doesn't have a Reynolds sticker ii) there was not enough round seat tube to accept 65mm of seat post and iii) Ian May was a "quirky" and "experimental" builder.

I can tell you that I feel pretty chuffed to be riding such a unique, custom bike!

I didn't know that SS was heavier than regular 531, which further adds to the weight of evidence that mine isn't SS. I referred to it as SL on the strength of this.

I guess that Ian used 531 but because he modified it, couldn't put a Reynolds sticker on it?

My Kevin Sayles built Bob Jackson never had a Reynolds sticker and if memory serves me my Falcon which was built for me via Billy Holmes doesn't have a Reynolds sticker either.

I guess it was up to the individual builder..............

Shaun

roadking":2nxjdrqv said:

Raleigh did make low end bikes with oval tubing but this was nothing special but Hi -Ten.

Click to expand...

Those frames were also available with Reynolds 501 main tubes. Apparently the fabrication was done with round tubes and the frame carefully squeezed in a press to get the oval shape. I forget who told me that but it was on this site - probably bikemeister2000 as he's an ex-Triumph Road employee.

David

Midlife":rze2ysxi said:

My Kevin Sayles built Bob Jackson never had a Reynolds sticker and if memory serves me my Falcon which was built for me via Billy Holmes doesn't have a Reynolds sticker either.

I guess it was up to the individual builder..............

Shaun

Click to expand...

It would be interesting to know how Reynolds "policed" the use of stickers and what requirements they placed on builders.

You'd think that they would require a builder to use a sticker if they used their tubes, but prohibit their use if they were modified as in my case.