Frame tubing?

I salvaged a bike from the hard rubbish because it looked better than the
usual stuff you find.

Is there a way to identify the quality of the frame tubing?
It has no lairy markings, just a label that says "Repco Bicycle Company
Huntingdale Victoria" below the front deraileur.

It probably dates from the mid 80's. It has 27inch wheels, 6speed shimano
freewheel, suntour downtube shifters and DiaCompe sidepull single pivot
brakes. It has UKI rims, not sure if they are alloy, probably not and the
front is not QR. If that is original then that probably is a clue that it
was a lowish end model.

The frame is lugged as was probably typical of the era.
The seatpost is 25.8mm
The seat tube is 28.8mm
The downtube is 28.8mm
The top tube is 25.5mm

Can you deduce anything from that?
I expect if it was a flash frame there would be some kind of label to say
so.

It had a working Cateye led front light so it wasn't a total loss if it is
just a heap of crap.

How would you make a single speed out of it? Not into fixies i want to be
able to stop pedaling.

WIlfred

Wilfred Kazoks wrote:

The frame is lugged as was probably typical of the era.
The seatpost is 25.8mm
The seat tube is 28.8mm
The downtube is 28.8mm
The top tube is 25.5mm

Can you deduce anything from that?

I can deduce that it's a waterpipe(tm) frame. Repco were a pretty
low-end bike. The seattube and downtube OD will actually be 28.6mm
(1.125"). From the seatpost diameter of 25.8, the seattube walls are
1.4mm, which is really impressively thick.

Contrast that with most better quality tube sets, which use 26.8 to
27.2mm seat posts, and seat tube walls of 0.6-1mm.

Another way to gauge the quality is to weigh it. A good quality frame
from that era would be 1.8-2.2kg.

The tubing is likely either low-end Tange, or else simple straight
gauge 4130.

Cheers,

Suzy


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suzyj

surely we're beating around the bush, or at least being polite -- it's
JUNK!!

You can get a 2nd hand Columbus SLX Cecil Walker/Paconi frame or a 531
Abici (fully chromed under the paint) for about $140 at Bicycle Recycle
at the moment. I was gunna get the SLX myself, but it's a touch too
small.

There's also a red Paconi Columbus Max frame down there, but I don't
know what it's worth. Hmmm.......what else....a couple of 853 Perkins
frames, but they're very heavy and a bit pricey.

There's heaps of old frames down there that could be made into fixies,
if you don't mind having a derailleur hanger.

I went nuts when I found that shop a few years ago, and I now have 10
frames (got rid of a few) -- six of them built up with 90% 2nd hand
parts!


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531Aussie