The artist formerly known as Michael and then Lungimsam and now Lum Gim 
Fong, asked of which tubing my 1985 Schwinn Tempo is comprised.  

The short answer is "I don't know for sure".  

The longer answer is longer.  There are Columbus Tenax stickers on the 
frame, and when I worked at a Schwinn shop in 1985, the Schwinn Tempos also 
had those Columbus Tenax stickers.  The fork blades on my bike also have a 
Columbus sticker.  

What's Columbus Tenax?  It's mid-range, seamed, heavier tubing than SL or 
even SP.  Depending on who you ask, though, things get weird beyond that 
point.  Some people will tell you that Tenax tubing was not available in 
the Fall of 1984.  It didn't exist yet, but the frames that became the 
Tempo, and the Voyager, and a couple other models were manufactured in the 
Fall of 1984, in Japan.  There is a rumor going around, and I'm 
perpetuating this rumor by sharing it.  The rumor is that Columbus had a 
pile of cosmetic blem SP and SL tubing that Schwinn bought up on the cheap. 
 Schwinn wanted to claim Columbus, but Columbus did not want them to claim 
Columbus SL or SP, so they gave them these Tenax stickers, which was a 
planned tubeset that did not yet exist.  So, these 1985 Schwinns have the 
reputation for being sneaky-nice bikes.  

I don't know if that rumor is true.  What I do know it that my Schwinn 
Tempo has a 28.6mm seat tube and takes a 26.4mm seatpost, meaning my seat 
tube has a massive 1.1mm wall thickness and therefore is almost certainly 
plain-gauge (not butted at all).  The 28,6mm downtube does NOT have that 
sonorous "ring" of thin-walled tubing.  The 25.4mm top tube also does not 
sound to my untrained ear as thinwall tubing.  I also know that the fork 
steer tube has TANGE stamped in it.   

Michael/Lungimsam/Lum Gim Fong also asked what my light Hillborne wheels 
are.  They are HED Belgium C2 Plus rims, 32 hole, Dura Ace 7700 hubs (with 
the rear spaced to 135 with an XT axle).  DT Competition spokes 2x in 
front, 2x on the left rear and 3x on the right rear.  Brass nipples.  

Bill Lindsay
El Cerrito, CA

On Thursday, August 24, 2017 at 9:51:22 AM UTC-7, Ryan Fleming wrote:
>
> Bill's Schwinn looks like it has Columbus tubing if I'm not mistaken
>
> On Thursday, August 24, 2017 at 1:18:46 AM UTC-5, lum gim fong wrote:
>>
>> Fantastic thread, Bill!!
>> Really fun. Enjoying it immensely.
>> Makes me hungry to ride more.
>> A couple questions about the bikes:
>>
>> Schwinn:
>> 1. What kinda tubing is the frame?
>>
>> Orange Sam:
>> 2. You said you have lightweight wheels on it. What are they? Interested 
>> to know.
>>
>> As for your concerns about your use of descriptive terms:
>> I am really glad you haven't used terms like "vertically compliant", 
>> "laterally stiff", or "stoic", in your descriptions as they make me roll my 
>> eyes when used. Haha! 
>>
>>

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