Frame Fabric - What's What Exactly?

[Mice]

Please could you tell me which frame is the, lightest, most long-lasting, most expensive, least expensive, most comfy, overall best,:

Aluminium
Titanium
Carbon
Steel
(I only know of these four - there may be others! ) Maybes I should have set this up as a Poll thing but I think there are too many questions.... Anyway - your help would be fab!

Many thanks

Mice

 

[GrumpyGregry]

It's a completely subjective decision, and as much to do with rider preference, frame geometry, tubeset/butting, and how each frame is built, as it is frame material. In my subjective opinion.

 

[black'n'yellow]

Please could you tell me which frame is the, lightest, most long-lasting, most expensive, least expensive, most comfy, overall best,:

'best' for what..??

 

[srw]

Steel rusts, aluminium fails suddenly, carbon delaminates and titanium's horribly expensive.
Steel is heavy, aluminium is harsh, carbon is harsher and titanium's horribly expensive.
Steel makes great touring bikes, aluminium makes great cheap bikes, carbon makes great racing bikes and titanium makes great bikes but is horribly expensive.

For me, it's got to be titanium.

 

[Mice]

Oh I see what you are saying! Will narrow down what I am trying to do. It's Vernons fault. He let me ride his Woodrup with the Gates system. Awesome. Am looking at lightest in weight (have to carry it up flights of stairs) but more durable than Carbon, yesterday an option was aluminium frame but is that lighter than steel and titanium and will it last as long? I think steel is the heaviest so not necessarily the right option which leaves me with titanium or aluminium. This will be my last N+1 as I have no storage space or indeed budget! I dont actually know what "tubeset/butting" means...!

Does that make my question a little bit clearer than mud?

M

 

[Mice]

Steel rusts, aluminium fails suddenly, carbon delaminates and titanium's horribly expensive.
Steel is heavy, aluminium is harsh, carbon is harsher and titanium's horribly expensive.
Steel makes great touring bikes, aluminium makes great cheap bikes, carbon makes great racing bikes and titanium makes great bikes but is horribly expensive.

For me, it's got to be titanium.

Taran Taraaaa! Thank you - that's making big sense. (Is it coincidental that sense rhymes with expense??)

M

 

[vickster]

I have a carbon bike, easy to carry up stairs but not meant to be the most durable as you say

Everyone raves about the Cannondale CAAD aluminium frames as being the best there are in that material - On Your Bike at LBdg stock Cannondale, they may do Van Nicholas titanium too? Or try Condor

What's the budget?

 

[Mice]

Budget not as big as I'd like but am wanting something that lasts. Titaniun Van Nick looking very interesting (and I know someone that rides one of those...!)

Thank you for all that!

M

 

[black'n'yellow]

Am looking at lightest in weight (have to carry it up flights of stairs)

the frame itself makes up only a small part of a bike's overall weight - it's possible to build light bikes out of any material using the right groupset, wheels, tyres and finishing components..

 

[GrumpyGregry]

carrying a hub geared bike up stairs can be interesting as a large dollop of weight is hanging off the back of the frame....

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

..... but more durable than Carbon

What evidence do you have that Carbon is not durable, in terms of strength for weight nothing comes close. Over the cobbles of Paris Roubaix which causes massive vibrational stress in a bike frame they ride Carbon bikes. Many high end, championship winning MTB's continue to be made out of carbon.
What exactly are you doing with a bike that requires it to be more durable than this ?

Every material has good points and weakness. Titanium for example though stronger and lighter than steel is also less resilient to certain chemicals and chemical processes, Primarily trichloroethylene which is a chemical found in some degreasing solvents. (if you ever degrease your chain, you may like to be aware of buying products which do not contain this)...... should you not buy a titanium because of this, of course not.. Titanium is a great material for bike frames, its light and stiff. The same can be said for carbon and other materials.

I've had and abused titanium bikes and carbon bikes.
I would take carbon every day for technological reasons, Titanium is difficult and expensive to shape this is why many bikes follow the same traditional designs.
Carbon can be easily shaped as such you can strengthen areas which require it while having lighter weight for area's which are not under stress.

The only thing I personally give Titanium the edge over carbon frames on is the ride quality.
Having owned both my feeling is Titanium for bolts and Carbon for frames..... Racing improves the breed, how many Titanium Alloy framed bikes are you aware of being ridden by the pro-teams? - there could be a reason for this.

 

[lejogger]

If you're really looking for a 1 bike does all and the last bike you'll ever buy then you could do a lot worse than have a look at something like this.
An Enigma titanium frame should last forever if you treat it right. Obviously I don't know what budget you're on but the frame will cost about £1k and you can then build it up as expensively or as cheaply as you like with your personal choice of gruppo and wheels. I've toured Ireland with a guy on one of these with full camping gear, and I've also seen a guy smash national time trials on one.

 

[Alembicbassman]

My frame is made of special aluminium... here's the blurb from the manufacturers "Our proprietary ultra light Puro™ U6 aluminum alloy is 25% stronger and 20% more fatigue resistant than traditional 6061 aluminum alloy.

I like to think I bought it because of this - I didn't - I bought it because it was half price - it's a Raleigh and people think Raleigh make crap bikes so it was cheap at £500 .

It's all cobblers really - For the most part £500 gets you a nice light bike you'll be happy with.

 

[tyred]

You can buy bikes which aren't made out of steel?

 

[dellzeqq]

For all the good things - Carbon.
For all the bad things - Steel
And you already have a really, really good bike