025 Steel Frames

[ZeroPlay]

Some thoughts on the 025 steel frames from the 80's and 90's.

 

025 doesn't seem to tell one much about what tubes were used to build the frame.  When I searched for 025 steel bicycle frame online, I mainly found links to South African du Toit frames.  It was possibly a marketing strategy to suggest that the tubes were part of the Reynolds range, which they were not.

 

You will not see Reynolds anywhere on the decal below, although the intention was clearly to make people think that it was part of the Reynolds range, judging by the size, fonts and colouring of the decal.

 

 

Ishiwata did have 025 in their tube range.  It was a heavy tube set, suitable for touring and city biking.

 

http://www.os2.dhs.org/~john/ishi-chart.jpg

 

 

Despite the exotic, French-sounding "Francois du Toit" name, my opinion is that the entire range of du Toit bikes (Lejeune, Peter Allen, du Toit, Diamante, etc...) were not particularly good.  I think their popularity was mainly due to the very limited options that we had in South Africa when it came to bikes that were a step up from supermarket bikes and still vaguely affordable.

 

When I eventually replaced my flexy-as-a-noodle Lejeune 653 with a Bottecchia SLX in the mid 1990s, the difference was huge.  It felt like all effort was being transferred into forward motion by the Bottecchia.  The front derailleur no longer scraped the chain when pedaling hard in the big ring (on both sides / both pedal strokes), like it did on the Lejeune.

[bikebloke]

what a pity its only monday ...

[Peddle pusher]

Little bit of background to 653, the stays are 753, but the main frame tubes and fork blades are 531. So, the seat tube is 531, which is not heat treated, but the seat STAYS at the seat cluster are 753 which is heat treated. It looks like this arrangement of tubing was done to soften the ride and reduce cost. SLX was a much better design reducing flex with internal ribbing, and costing more. 025 was basically high end steam tube  that was selected for its higher carbon content and then turned into bicycles. Very clever marketing ploy used, think there was a spat with Reynolds over the inference that the sticker indicated a Reynolds tube was used.

[BuffsVintageBikes]

Ja swaer, 025 is the closest you'll get to plumbers tubing in SA. I've ridden a good few SA classics and some are better than others, even when built with the same tubing. Not all the SA built bikes were built by the same frame builder either so you can't throw them all under the bus.

While some might have some flex in them making them less than ideal for a big sprinter you could ride long miles on them all day, every day. It's what we had at the time, and they are part of our proud SA cycling legacy. They were more affordable than the Italian frames and they served many an SA rider very well over the years... and some still do

[ZeroPlay]

Here is the Lejeune 653, ridden by me in the 1990 Argus.

 

Edited November 26, 2019 by ZeroPlay

[Never too many bikes]

Well each to their own opinion. Diversity is what makes the world go round.

I have a Lejeune, Le Turbo and Du Toit track bike.

I raced the Le Turbo for many years, lost count at about 65,000km, then took it out of the rafters 30 years later, changed only tyres, tubes and bearings and then did Eroica in a very decent time on it. Still no issues.

Recently purchased the Lejeune from Nils at Woodstook for (R3k!), its got campy drop outs and is made from Reynolds tubing (can't recall exactly which) and is my preferred daily bike. I have a Bianchi, Scott, Giant and Momsen to choose from in addition to those mentioned. Thus the SA made steel cant be all bad.

[Knersboy]

Let’s not be mean to 653 or SA made steel frames. I had a Hansom 653 in the 90s, it was wonderful but my mama sold it when I was studying abroad.

 

However, I recently (a few years back) reclaimed my mates Hansom Reynolds 708 from his moms garage. 708 is kinda like SLX, 531 main tubes that are basically rifled and not butted, and 753 rear triangle and fork.

 

Got it resprayed by Bogus and fitted campag 11 speed (the new alloy Centaur group). It is my only road bike and it rides great. 708 is really rare, I have never seen another one in real life.

[Knersboy]

Here she is, frame is 28 years old and will probably last another 100.

[Prince Albert Cycles]

Here she is, frame is 28 years old and will probably last another 100.

Good looking bike . For some reason we called them : " hand gebrand deur Gotty Hansen" but can't recal any failures on the Hansoms

[intern]

Pretty sure everyone who was a cyclist in the 1980s and 1990s had at least one Alpina, Hansom, LeJeune, LeTurbo or Peugeot. I had one of all of those. And an Exocet and a Cannondale and a Colnago Master. And even a Porsca Ikapa, which had a really nice purple colour scheme, but no braze on for a 'proper' derailleur, had a DNP GX instead! 

[Peddle pusher]

So I weighed the " 025 steampunkt " FdT and comes in at 13.2 kg. Not that shabby for what it was 37 years ago.

[HeyYou]

Pretty easy to ask FdT.

 

He's quite contactable and still involved.