Vari-Wall THERMLX

True Temper announced in 2016 that they will no longer be making bicycle tubing. At first this caused us concern. But then we got a call from another American tubing company, and now we're quite excited to offer another fantastic line American made steel materials. We've been working with Randy for several months now to not only re-create our amazing ultra-light steel bikes, but even improve them! We couldn't be more excited!

Vari-Wall THERMLX tubing takes over where True Temper left off. THERMLX tubing is an aerospace grade of 'air hardening' steel and modified to enhance its properties for light weight bicycle frames.

Vari-Wall is seamless tubing as well. This puts it another level above the True Temper version that we have used up until now. All THERMLX bicycle tubing have a tensile strengths approx. 30% higher than other steel tubing, so we can use much thinner, lighter weight material without compromising strength. This isn't the only improvement over traditional cro-moly though. Air hardening means that the tubing is designed specifically for the higher heat of welding. Therefore, the tubing retains its high strength, even in the heat affected areas.

We've been building with this type of ultra-light steel tubes for years now, and I think you'll find the ride characteristics to be amazing. The price of a hand-crafted Rodriguez THERMLX frame is less than most custom builders sell their generic labeled, heavier 'cro-moly' frames for. For most people, a Rodriguez OX Platinum frame is the Perfect Blend of performance, light-weight, and comfortable riding.

Weight - weights listed are for frames built for standard road brakes (disc brakes add weight)
A Rodriguez frame built with THERMLX tubing can be very light. You'll see a few mass-produced 'light steel' frames on the market, and they usually weigh in well over 4 pounds. A Competition Rodriguez THERMLX frame in a medium size will usually tip the scales at about 3.5 pounds. In smaller sizes they've weighed in around 3.1 pounds. These are very respectable, true weights that we will stand behind.

Bike weight is important to a lot of people, and for that reason they are willing to compromise comfort and longevity for a lighter weight frame material. There's no need for that. I know that there are a lot of carbon fiber frame makers out there that claim sub 3lbs weights, but realize there's a lot of lying that takes place out there. When we weigh high-end carbon frames on our digital scale, we usually find that they weigh around 3.25 ~ 3.75 pounds just like one of our THERMLX frames.

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