Reynolds (est. 1898) and Columbus (est. 1919) are two of the oldest and most prestigious names in cycle frame tubing, and still producing top end steel tubesets in the modern day despite being over a century old. A Reynolds of Columbus decal proudly displayed on the seat tube (or down tube for the French) was a sign of quality.
Having a Reynolds or Columbus decal was a guarantee of a quality frameset, or at the very least, a guarantee of the quality materials required to make a quality frameset.
It was also a mark of prestige, holding a special cachet in the psyche of serious cyclists, to the point that they were the subject of forgeries and parodies, and decals from lesser manufacturers imitating the look or color scheme.
This made the companies none too happy, as the distribution of genuine decals was highly regulated. Reynolds decals were intentionally delicate so they could not be peeled off, as anyone with a flaking decal knows, and Reynolds would previously not even issue original decals for repaints instead offering “respray” decals to approved builders.
That is to say, tubing decals were a guarantee of genuine quality of tubing, and a big deal.
That leads us to the modern day. Tubing decals are rarer, but still commonly found on steel and sometimes aluminum framesets. Often the decals will not show the name of the tubing manufacturer, but the name of the marque that sold (not even made) the frame. This isn’t new, Raleigh USA had been doing it since the 80’s, even on 531 frames, but this is standard practice now. They will claim things like custom drawn 4130 tubes, but most people understand this to mean generic seam welded Asian CrMo of lesser but adequate quality, as a decal from one of the less famous tubing manufacturers like Tange still carries more prestige than a generic decal. That being said, generic butted CrMo isn’t even particularly bad. The worst part about it is you don’t really know what you’re getting with that custom drawn tubeset.
Reynolds still issues tubing decals, although usually they just say frame tubes since Reynolds does not sell complete tubesets anymore but sells by the individual tube to allow for greater customization. You will be hard pressed to find a frame made with Reynolds but without a Reynolds decal, showing how much weight (or lack thereof) the tubes made in Birmingham still have.
However, there is one Reynolds tubeset not made in Birmingham. Reynolds 520. This isn’t a secret as Reynolds states what it is on their website, but it’s not transparently disclosed most of the time a Reynolds 520 frame is advertised. Reynolds claims it to be the same quality as Birmingham made 525, but exactly 5 less (525-520=5). Both 525 and 520 are basic butted tubes, usually made from seamed 4130 stock. To be clear, this isn’t a Reynolds owned an operated factory in Taiwan to make the same 525 tubing as they do in Birmingham, but closer to OEM production with cheaper labor costs. It’s a licensing arrangement with Founder Land in Taiwan, who would otherwise be producing generic tubes because I have never seen a Founder Land tubing decal on a frame, ever.
The details of the arrangement are unknown to me. I do not know if Founder Land offers even lesser quality butted CrMo tubes, or 520 uses exclusive Reynolds 525 profiles. I doubt it though, considering Founder Land doesn’t advertise multiple tiers of tubing, nor does it make sense to offer multiple tiers of basic 4130 butted tubing, and some, but not all of the advertised profiles match 525.
So what are you paying for when you buy a bike with a Reynolds 520 sticker? Mostly a sticker. To a lesser extent, a guarantee from Reynolds in Birmingham that your frame was made with genuine Taiwanese Founder Land butted frame tubes of decent quality, at least the main ones. Does that make it any more trustworthy than an in-house tubing sticker that says custom drawn double butted 4130? That’s up to you, but only one of them will let you say you have a frame made from genuine Reynolds tubing, even though it’s made of Founder Land tubing.
While Reynolds doesn’t try too hard to keep it a secret, things are a bit more ambiguous on the Columbus side. While a bike company might be able to pull the wool over your eyes with Reynolds 520, anyone who knows what to look for will be able to recognize it for what it is with just a little googling.
Columbus Cromor is made in Italy, except when it’s not, maybe. I’m making the assumption here that ex-Asia (from Asia) means probably not made in Italy. All current Columbus decals proudly declare “made in Italy” including Cromor, except again, when it doesn’t. Notably, the ‘Tre-Tubi’ (3 main tubes) decal doesn’t say it. Again, there’s nothing special about Cromor, it’s basic 4130-equivalent seamed steel. Don’t let the 25CrMo4 name fool you, the specs are close enough that a batch could be sold as either 4130 or 25CrMo4 and are generally considered equivalent.
I have to wonder if this practice is new. Some of the old Schwinn frames bore Columbus Tenax Tre-Tubi decals, but curiously took small seatpost sizes. While it was claimed that Tenax was the “production grade” of SL/SP, no one has ever been able to explain what that means. SL/SP both used single butted seat tubes and took 27.2 or 27.0 seatposts. However, many Japanese made tubesets used double butted seat tubes and took smaller seatposts. There was a similar situation where Tenax was OEM only (Schwinn only) and it has been asserted at least some were made in Japan. It’s possible Tenax used a straight gauge seat tube, but that would make it Due-Tubi Rinforzati.
There’s nothing wrong with generic CrMo tubing. Maxway is one of the bigger manufacturers of production steel frames and you can buy a quality generic butted CrMo frameset from them to rebadge and have them put your stickers on them, or even have them make you frames of your own design to spec. But you can also buy Reynolds 520 and Columbus Cromor from them if your purchasing manager thinks those stickers would make a fine addition to the brand stickers, full of history and heritage.
Kuromori 