Carl,
I'm passing on info that I received about a similar question.
From a member of the FatCogs forum:
"True Temper was the only tubing 95 IFs were built out of. IIRC 853 wasn't even available yet. The rumor at the time was that the IF boys used the same tubes the Yo was built with. Story was that Fat split town and left an outstanding order or something with True Temper for tubes and the IF boys went ahead and bought those tubes. Could have been myth building at the time since they were all pretty bitter about the whole Fat situation and were trying to vilify Chris and Wendyl. The idea that Fat pulled a midnight run and left material behind has been disabused by i-robot, but the idea that they left an order hanging with TT is believable.
So, basically the early IFs were True Temper, same geo as a Yo Eddy, Ritchey dropouts and downtube cable routing for the derailleurs. My understanding was that downtube routing was used to make it more obvious the frame wasn't a copy of a Yo.
True Temper was the only tubing 95 IFs were built out of. IIRC 853 wasn't even available yet. The rumor at the time was that the IF boys used the same tubes the Yo was built with. Story was that Fat split town and left an outstanding order or something with True Temper for tubes and the IF boys went ahead and bought those tubes. Could have been myth building at the time since they were all pretty bitter about the whole Fat situation and were trying to vilify Chris and Wendyl. The idea that Fat pulled a midnight run and left material behind has been disabused by i-robot, but the idea that they left an order hanging with TT is believable.
So, basically the early IFs were True Temper, same geo as a Yo Eddy, Ritchey dropouts and downtube cable routing for the derailleurs. My understanding was that downtube routing was used to make it more obvious the frame wasn't a copy of a Yo."
I am in the process of purchasing a Deluxe, S#52. This frame apparently is TrueTemper. I have another Deluxe, S#269, that is supposedly Reynolds 853…can't verify that though.
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