FAQ – Waterford Precision Cycles

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Answer

(See below for more questions.)

Materials & Construction

What makes Waterford's Tubesets so Special?

Over the years, Waterford has developed a broad palette of custom tubes to use in its bikes.

Alloys: When Waterford started, the best steel tubing around was Reynolds 753 - the heat treated version of their famous 531 tubing. Not long afterwards, Waterford started working with various companies bringing a whole new category of steel alloys to the market - air hardening steels. Today, True Temper's OX Platinum and Reynolds' 853 stand at the forefront of heat treated air-hardening steels. The heat treating increases the strength of the steel by over 50%. Unlike the older generation of high-strength alloys, air-hardening steels keep all their strength at the weld-zone - even when the welding process (such as TIG welding) takes the material up to high temperatures. The development of air-hardening steels opens up the door to using TIG welding for lightweight steel designs.

Dimensions: Waterford now uses two system of tubing -

> Waterford OS: Developed a decade ago, OS first appeared as the Schwinn Paramount OS. The original OS tubeset stretched steels to new levels of performance by increasing the outside diameters (downtubes are 1 1/4 in. instead of 1 1/8 in.) while thinning the walls. The result was a bike with the same stiffness as earlier bikes but at a lower weight. The OS standard includes oversized chainstays and a seatmast flared at the bottom bracket to stiffen the bottom bracket, the area of the bike where stiffness is key.

> S3: Thanks to air-hardening designs as well as improved tube manufacturing, the S3 tubeset takes the OS concept to new levels - 1 1/2 in. (38mm) instead of the OS 1 1/4 in., resulting in a dramatic lightening of the tubeset while enhancing bottom bracket stiffness and maintaining a durable structure.

Exquisite Seatstays: We taper our seatstays at both ends of our road racing tubesets. The small diameter at each end improves rider comfort which the stiffer center section of the stays insure more positive braking.

We Like Round tubes: Every structural engineering book will tell you that the round tube is the strongest structure for its weight. And we've found that the forces acting on the bicycle frame are too varied to give advantage to forces in one direction and not the others.

The ovalization on the S3 downtube serves to provide a fit with today's head tube and bottom bracket designs. Changing the head tube and bottom bracket to fit a round version of the S3 tube would add more weight than what could be additionally removed from the downtube itself.

Not just a tubeset, it is a tubing system. We build frames using a palette of several top and downtubes to let us control strength and stiffness throughout the range of sizes.

What's more, we can mix in tubes to achieve special objectives. For example, sprinters might benefit from installing our "heavy" downtube. The greater strength of this tubeset insures the responsiveness they need for that final dash to the finish.

Free of gimmicks - just solid engineering: Waterford Custom Tubing. No other builder has put this much thought and effort into a tubeset completely dedicated to the rider.