Not guessing, why do you think it's not Reynolds tubing, the only non hydroformed tubing is the head tube and possibly the top tube.
Reynolds was one of the sponsors for GT's 1996 Olympic "Superbikes" along with Mavic, and Shimano.
View attachment 952058
The Reynolds decal tells a story of collaboration on design, materials, and manufacturing as Reynolds manufactures hydroformed tubing
Quote from Reynolds website...
"The 6061 alloy is very suitable for use in hydro-formed shapes due to its high ductility, and can also be used in conjunction with butted profiles subject to design parameters.
6061 is available as hydroformed and/or butted tubing for OEM customers only."
Now let's look at the business case.
(1). Reynolds would not put their name on the bike if they did not make the tubing and the tubing is hydroformed.
(2). Tooling for hydroforming is
expensive and all that tooling and the processes are proprietary and held closely by the manufacture.
(3). I would say the concept of the GT aero bikes started in 1994 because of the time required to finalize the design and to manufacture the the tooling to hydroform the tubing had to be complete no later than June 1995 to manufacture tubing in time to build Atlanta prototypes in early 1996.
(4). The production bikes had to be built from Reynolds hydroformed tubing because of the lead time from the Atlanta Olympics to the start of manufacture of those bikes in late 1996 to early 1997 and all that tooling had to be paid for by spreading the cost out through the production bikes. I would also say the production bikes were cooked into the stew in the very beginning as it makes good business sense.
(5). David Tiemeyer was a graduate of the University of Michigan with a degree in engineering. You make him sound like a production welder, his involvement was much more than peripheral.
My GT has a build date of 06 97 and S/N in the very low 500's
I'm looking forward to your response.
Best Wishes: Mike
