As I get further along in building bikes of a consistent quality. I'm starting to look into various tubing offerings.
I started with straight gauge .028 and .035" then to 8-5-8 and now onto 7-5-7 and thinner.

Today I was looking at butting profiles on a 28.6 Top Tube. 7-5-7 vs 7-45-7. The butts + transitions are the same length in both offerings. The difference in weight will be minimal. There is obviously a price difference. (Zona vs Life).

I'm assuming that since the butting profile, diameter, and basic material (i.e. steel) are the same, there's little difference in ride quality between the two... especially as 1 out of 9-ish tubes. I'm also assuming that Life is a bit harder to file. So for a novice builder like myself, it seems that the benefit for choosing Life is minimal (so existential, I know).

But I wonder, for the master builders, what else would you be "weighing?"

Again, I recognize that this is just a piece of the whole (bike) but as a young-ish product/OPS guy, this seems like one of these SKUs should be eliminated since (from a novice's POV) they're redundant. Obviously it was deemed necessary. And I want to understand why. My knowledge base isobviously lacking.


Thanks!