snipped:
>"If framebuilders ever loose sight of ability to tune
>the ride in steel for a wonderful pleasurable ride than
>I'm afraid the future of great steel bikes is rather dim..."



yikes!
i think the 'sweet ride', if you will comes from the material,
and perhaps the frame's design, too. not from the guage
or the butt profile, as mike had suggested before. i think,
as frame materials (the steels discussed...) go, there is little
difference in the 'feel' of the bicycle among the quality sets
and types mentioned. some pipes are, in and of themselves,
stronger, lighter, more ductile, have different elongation factors,
etcetera. i'm just not buying that these differences affect the 'feel'
of the bicycle. make some substitutions-some bicycles last longer,
some weigh less. that's where it starts and stops for me.
and...
i have never "tuned in the ride in steel for a wonderful pleasurable
ride..." vis-a-vis* the tube sets or guages. i don't even know what
that means.
e-RICHIE
*i just wanted to use "vis-a-vis" in a sentence.