Steel vs Aluminium

[Flying_Monkey]

Steel is the realm of custom made bikes these days !!!

This isn't at all true - there are a number of good basic frames made with steel - On-One and Planet-X do the Il Pompino and Kaffenback (SS/Fixed and Geared version of the same frame respectively). The Kaffenback is pretty much the perfect do-it-all commuter IMHO. On-one also do the best value steel HT MTB frames, the Inbred / 456. There's also Surly and others who do their own thing...

 

[fossyant]

Forgot those !

 

[Trillian]

as my inbred was built as a direct transfer of parts from an alu frame to the steel frame, i feel thta i am able to say steel is much smoother off road, its more comfortable to the point that trails i used to avoid (one bridalway in particular) is now so much fun to ride.

the only difference between my inbred and the bike i had before it is the brakes and lack of gears.


my road bike is steel, i do have an aluminium road bike, but i prefer riding the steel one.

 

[Nigeyy]

it may be, it may not ( and I'm not saying you are wrong).

But the fact of the matter is that you knew you were going to a steel frame as opposed to being truly blind of the frame material you were riding. I'm guessing that you purposely went to another frame for the fact you thought it was better (i.e. did you choose to buy it as a consumer?) -if so, therein probably lies a problem (e.g. do you want to buy something and want it to be worse than what it replaces?).

Also, was the alu frame a really good alu frame? And is the inbred a really good example of a steel frame?

I've ridden quite a few alu and steel frames -there's been really good ones and bad ones -and whether its steel or alu doesn't seem to matter in terms of applying generalizations.

as my inbred was built as a direct transfer of parts from an alu frame to the steel frame, i feel thta i am able to say steel is much smoother off road, its more comfortable to the point that trails i used to avoid (one bridalway in particular) is now so much fun to ride.

the only difference between my inbred and the bike i had before it is the brakes and lack of gears.


my road bike is steel, i do have an aluminium road bike, but i prefer riding the steel one.

 

[Mr Pig]

I've ridden a few steel and aluminium bikes. To me the aluminium ones do seem to be harsher.

Obviously you can still feel bumps etc but the vibration that comes off an aluminium frame seems less pleasant, like a buzzing sensation, where as the steel frame seems more in tune with what feels natural.

As with everything, I'm sure there will be exceptions, but that's my opinion of the metals in general.

 

[Chris James]

The lad I went with on a ride today has moved from Keighley to Huddersfield. His summer bike was an alu frame with carbon fork. It has broken. He has swapped to his winter bike which is all steel and reckons the (admittedly very bad) roads feel much better now. His next summer frame is going to be steel, with carbon forks.

He seems fairly convinced that aluminium gives a rougher ride than steel. Truthfully any difference has little to do with the material and more to do with the geometry. Aluminium alloy frame need oversized (hence stiff) tubing to limit transferred stresses to beneath the fatigue limit.

 

[Gerry Attrick]

Ooo-er! That sounds a bit, y'know, rude!

I have both, but probably don't ride enough to notice much difference - since the alu bike has skinnier wheels and higher tyre pressures than the steel ones, I suspect I wouldn't pick up on the difference in the frame alone...

Arch!!! I had you down as a nice girl

 

[Riding in Circles]

Cold forged aluminium has less flex that heat treated aluminium, also the rake of the forks and headtube has a huge impact.

 

[Mr Pig]

Aluminium alloy frame need oversized tubing to limit transferred stresses..

Do you think it could be the higher resonant frequency of the material? Not all aluminium frames have huge tubes. I think it could be more to do with the 'way' the metal rings, not the fact that it rings more.

 

[Keith Oates]

I've only ridden Aluminium road bikes occasionally, but those have seemed to be a harsher ride!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[galaxy1]

Cheers everyone for answering .It's given me something to think about

 

[beancounter]

Steel, aluminium and carbon are soooooo yesterday. Titanium is the thing to lust after....

Oh, I agree. I so regret not buying a Lemond titanium bike I saw at Parker International, although it was frightfully expensive, £2500 I think, and that was about 1994...

...oh hang on...

bc

 

[swee'pea99]

I rode (increasingly good) steel bikes after returning to cycling five years or so ago, and enjoyed it (increasingly). Then I got an (aluminium) Vitus 979. The ride may be a tad harsher - tho' certainly not so much as to be any kind of a problem - but the payoff in terms of sheer speed and enjoyment more than compensates. Then again, I guess that could be as much to do with design/geometry as with the material per se.

 

[asterix]

Steel. I've ridden aluminium bikes and prefer steel. One day I might go for Ti but only if I can be convinced it's as good as steel, for me that is.

 

[Riding in Circles]

The problem with titanium is it gets wrecked during the welding process and few people have the means to re-temper titanium.