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Steel Framed Bikes

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  • December 18, 2015 at 10:27 am #25170
    BobbyG

    There appears to be a bit of a resurgence of steel framed bikes of late.  Whilst they’re often fine looking machines, is this popularity down to anything more than just nostalgia for the more pretentious amongst us?

    I mean, how different is a steel framed bike to my aluminium Felt F75??

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  • December 20, 2015 at 2:42 pm #864015
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    mattydubster

    My MTB hardtail has a steel

    My MTB hardtail has a steel frame and tbh I noticed a huge difference from the near identical alu frame that it replaced. You pretty much just bounce along the trails, it absorbs and gives like crazy and I love it!  I will never ever be concerned about being a weight weenie again, it stuck an extra kg on the weight of the bike but I swear I go quicker!

     

    My road (gravel) bike has a titanium frame and this is certainly a lot less harsh than the alu frame also.  

    December 20, 2015 at 9:09 am #864013
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    barbarus

    Aesthetically I think it’s
    Aesthetically I think it’s easier to build an ugly bike out of carbon fibre or aluminium but it’s perfectly possible to build a good looking one out of any of the three.

    Yes, steel bikes may be considered old fashioned looking but as Senser said “fashion is something so ugly it has to be changed every fifteen minutes”

    I doubt I’ll ever buy a bike not made of metal. I like the idea of craftsmanship associated with steel. I’m quite sure a good ALU or carbon frame would ride just as well though.

    December 19, 2015 at 9:22 pm #864011
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    wycombewheeler

    mike the bike wrote:

    mike the bike wrote:
    Especially if you are one of those people who are convinced that 1kg makes all the difference to your bike but conveniently forget you weigh 70kg.

    I wish!

    December 19, 2015 at 6:39 pm #864009
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    matthewn5

    I’ve got all three. The ride

    I’ve got all three. The ride on a steel bike is creamy smooth. It feels alive. The aluminium bike is brutally stiff and efficient, with the ride damped by the carbon fork and carbon seatpost. The carbon bike has a lovely smooth ride, but feels a bit damp, rather than alive, though if you give it loads of welly it comes alive like the aluminium bike.

    So I’d probably recommend the steel bike for pootling and longer rides, the aluminium bike for quick blasts, and the carbon bike for longer fast rides.

    December 19, 2015 at 6:35 pm #864007
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    mike the bike

    Aluminium is nasty stuff.

    Aluminium is nasty stuff.  Its production requires truly enormous amounts of energy and at the end of the process you are left with an inherently weak material.  The only way to make the tubing strong enough for a bike is to have those typically huge cross-sections.  And then, because of its comparative frailty, it breaks easily and is prone to fatigue.  Better manufacturers, such as Cannondale, heat treat their frames to improve the strength, but there is a limit to what they can achieve.

    Less important, but still relevant, are it’s tendency to amplify road noise and, although it doesn’t rust, to corrode in a cloud of spooky white dust.

    Of course, it is lighter than steel and that may be important to you.  Especially if you are one of those people who are convinced that 1kg makes all the difference to your bike but conveniently forget you weigh 70kg.

    Steel isn’t perfect either.  It is heavier, although it can be surprisingly light if you spend a little more.  It rusts, but not much and then only slowly.  And, it must be said, it is a material associated with the previous century.  That last point weighs heavily on the mnds of mny people, particularly those who write without using vowels.

    Happy Christmas choosing.

     

    December 18, 2015 at 3:57 pm #864005
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    Mungecrundle

    Although I cannot comment on

    Although I cannot comment on a comparison of a steel frame to your Felt aluminium, because I have not ridden your bike, I can tell you from experience why I liked my steel frame.

    1. Steel frames can be surprisingly light. My Sintesi from the late 1990s with a Dura Ace 9spd groupset, carbon fork and Mavic Ksyriums was well under 8Kg.

    2. When riding it and putting a sprint or some extra effort in I always got the feeling that the frame was storing some of that energy and then releasing it to boost the acceleration. I’m sure this makes no sense to anyone who knows anything about frame design, it was just a feeling, a lively response to input rather than putting energy into an inert lump of metal. Even if it was the frame flexing which presumably is bad for ultimate performance, it was a response that I really enjoyed. I have never had this same feedback from aluminium bikes which I have tried. I always feel aluminium, though perfectly acceptable, has a somewhat harsh but dull ride quality in comparison.

    3. I believe that steel frames can take more abuse and are more repairable. I might be wrong.

    4. I now run a carbon frame, it’s very nice, light, stiff where it needs to be and springy where it needs to be. It is faster overall and far more comfortable but doesn’t climb as well.

    5. How relevant a frame from the 1990s is to modern steel is another question…

    HTH

    M

     

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