Chromemoly

[Vernon Head]

I have a 2003 CR32-SR. Is the tubing chromemoly?

Thanks.

[Chris Lobaugh]

Yes

[Edward louis]

I have a question the american chassis manufactures say the chromoly is better here than europe? is there a difference? and which one is better? :confused:

[Marc Miller]

Edward,

I believe the confusion comes from only the semantics of chromoly tubing. The American manufacturers will lead you to believe that Euro chassis are NOT made from chromoly tubing, when in fact they are. American companies use "4130 chromoly" to build their karting chassis. They claim that this chromoly is "better" than european chromoly because it has a better memory, when in fact there is very little difference between the tubing used here vs. there. The difference is that 4130 doesn't exist in Europe because 4130 is an standard of AISI (American Iron & Steel Institute). It is a tubing specific to aviation. The chromoly used on most euro chassis, and Birel, is indeed chromoly. The name might be different because they don't use AISI standard names, however, the material is near identical.

Next time an American manufacturer wants to tell you how much better 4130 is better than euro chromoly, you can applaud their patriotism, but know that they might never really know the true difference is only a title.

[Vernon Head]

Marc:

The reason I asked the question is that Birel does not say anything on their website one way or another. They just say "32 mm pipes". Ekarting News has several discussions where people are claiming that Birel uses mild steel. I know this couldn't be right, but wanted to hear it from the experts.

-Vernon

[Edward louis]

So in the immortal words of the man himself Chuck D.......:cool:

DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE!:p



Thank you!

[Marc Miller]

No problem guys. I have confirmed and re-confirmed with Birel several times over the years with Ronni Sala, President of Birel Motorsport. I can assure you, chromoly is used in the construction of Birel Racing chassis.

Right on Ed - Don't believe the hype that european karts are "soft". We have customers with karts from 2002-2003 still running within tenths of a second of the track record of our track.

[kart95]

You do hear this alot in the US.

Seems to me that if Birel uses a Chromemoly equivalent, they would update their markeiing material to end the debate. Otherwise, the US manufacturers can continue to claim that the Euro chassis are soft.

[Marc Miller]

First - considering the term chromoly is not a European term, why would there be a need to have it in the marketing material?

Second - considering there is only one American manufacturer left, you don't hear this argument much. Many of the Euro brands might put the (Cr) in their marketing materials even though they are not called technically chromoly. Again, chromoly is an SAE grade, not a european grade and while the metals are of similar make-up, they just are NOT called chromoly because they are not SAE graded metals (i.e. - manufacturered in the US).

Truthfully, the products speak for themselves. We have countless of reports of older Birel models with many years of use winning races on a national level. This year, the fastest kart in DD2 was a 2 year old Birel that had been in 2 FWT incidents, straightened and been run hard for many seasons including several hundred test laps for a tire manufacturer.

Anothr account is the Q31 chassis that Patrick Olsen won many races with this season in Man. cup (and championships as well) that is nearly 100 races old.

Claims are claims - but results are results.