HT Tubes? (or does anyone know anything about this Cilo road bike?

[MajorMantra]

I'm at home from uni for the holidays and hence away from my beloved bikes so I've got myself an old road bike from a local second-hand shop. It's a low-end (judging from the components) Cilo 12 speed with indexed downtube shifters and mostly Shimano bits. Does anyone know anything about these bikes apart from the fact that they were made by a now-defunct Swiss company?

Also, the frame is labelled "HT Tubes". Is this the much maligned hi-ten steel? Or does it stand for "heat treated" or something? Much googling has not yielded a useful answer to this question.

In any case it's a pleasant enough bike to ride - just need to get new brake blocks or possibly new brakes as it's a little scary on the rather steep hill I live on.

Cheers,
Matthew

 

[mickle]

It'll be high tensile.

 

[MajorMantra]

You sound very sure and it says "fact" in your sig so I'll choose to believe you.

I was pretty sure it was high tensile (i.e. cheap and not brilliant) when I first looked at it and picked it up but the bike didn't cost much. Not too heavy though...

Cheers,
Matthew

 

[mickle]

I'm pretty sure MM, if it was ChroMo or similar steel alloy they'd crow about it. If it was sub Hi-Ten it would weigh as much as a very heavy thing. Process of elimination. I watch CSI you know.

If you pull the seat post out and read the number stamped on it below the min insertion line it can tell you a lot. The external diameter is always 28.6mm on a steel frame which must take a front mech. The higher the quality of steel the stronger it is and the lower the wall thickness. So an expensive steel alloy tube set such as Reynolds 531 uses a 27.2mm post. Cheaper Reynolds 501 uses 27.0mm, Generic ChroMo requires a 26.8mm post. And so it goes.

They used to cheat though, it wasn't uncommon to find bikes with a sticker (in the usual place; on the seat tube, under the seat lug) which read '531'. Trouble was it referred only to the seat tube itself, everything else being something rather lower quality.

Pay no attention to my sig. It's post modern irony.

 

[MajorMantra]

Ah, that all makes sense. I will have a gander when I'm next fiddling.

To be honest it doesn't matter much, I'm just permanently curious. The Cilo feels heavier than my 520 framed fixed gear and my aluminium road bike but it's not at BSO horror levels.

Thanks mickle, I've learned stuff today.

Matthew

 

[mickle]

Aye. Nae bother.

I'm not weird or owt but when you do establish the size of your seat post would you let me know?







Ok I'm weird.

 

[Dave5N]

...I'm not weird or owt but...

Disbelieve this.








fact!

 

[Dave5N]

BTW nice new avatar, mickle, but you wanna transparent the BG

 

[mickle]

Do the wanna whatnow?

 

[Dave5N]

Ar.

 

[MajorMantra]

Aye. Nae bother.

I'm not weird or owt but when you do establish the size of your seat post would you let me know?







Ok I'm weird.

Heh, no problem. I should be picking up new brake blocks tomorrow (ok, today, it's nearly 4AM) if all goes to plan so I'll pop it off then.

Have you two lapsed into code?

Cheers,
Matthew

 

[MajorMantra]

I had a look but there was no sign of a size on the seat post. When I measured it with callipers it was about 26.1mm - pretty sure that's not a standard size but it could easily have been 26.0 or 26.2. Anyway, that's fairly small which I guess proves this is a fairly crappy frame.

I had my first ride with the new brake blocks today and was a bit dissapointed. I guess I'm just too used to the considerable stopping power of the dual pivot brakes on my other two road bikes, but the single pivots on the Cilo really suck by comparison. Now I'm wondering if it would be worth changing the brakes completely - I'm at home in Luxembourg and it's very hilly so this would be safer. Might start another thread about fitting new brakes to an old frame...

Matthew

 

[mickle]

You could wait a few miles to let your braking surfaces bed in but actually old stylee single pivots really are shoot and there really is bugger all you can do about it. New cables and blocks improve matters but a set of dual pivots will nearly half your braking distance.