Why would anyone buy a steel frame over alloy?
what are the benefits?
are there any?

Why wouldn’t they?

steel is an alloy of iron and carbon but I guess you mean an alu alloy. the benefits are stiffness and ride characteristics can be different/ better.
also steel is real… 😆
love my BFe! so nice to ride and feels better than my 7005 aluminium frame

Steel bends. Alloy and carbon just snap.
Steel in some instances can be bent back into shape if damaged.
Because it can be very pliable, it can (not always is) be built up into a very forgiving, comfortable frame.
And of course. Steel is real 😉

They make frames not built from steel?!

What heresy is this?!

Swapped from aluminium to steel last year and loving it. The 1.1lb(ish) weight penalty works out as less than 0.5% of bike & rider weight. I’ll take that for a better (to me) ride.

From an objective point of view, steel is more durable and more easily repaired than aluminium.

Steel has a theoretically longer fatigue life and is easier to fix (by wleding or by ‘cold-setting’) or weld new mounts/fixings to, although 2nd hand market on here would seem to be hugely averse to anything that has had a crack repaired, whatever the material.

Weight would seem to be the biggest issue with bicycle frames. Someone commented on another thread on here that even superbikes (as in motorcycles) have fairly boggo standard steel frames because weight is not as critical, even WSB’s have nicer steel alloys as opposed to aluminum alloys. I wonder what variuety of ‘ride characteristics’ large manufacturers would come up with for steel bicycle frames if for whatever reason aluminum and carbon fibre vanished overnight.

Out of interest, is it harder to knacker bb threads and flare headtubes on steel frames?

i like steel as it’s more durable:

i don’t get cold-sweats installing bottom brackets.

i’ve seen cable-rub wear scary grooves in Ally frames.

i’ve really ****ed up Ally frames in 1 chain-sucky ride.

i’ve really ****ed Ally frames on 1 journey on a bike-rack/uplift truck.

my old Cotic Hemlock weighed 7lbs, the new Rocket weighs about 7lbs – what weight penalty?

A steel framed bike with straight thin tubing looks much classier than an equivalent bendy hydroformed fat tubed alu frame.

good point.

my genesis equilibrium looks lovely.

“Fire and wind come from the sky, from the gods of the sky, but Crom is our god. Crom, and he lives in the earth.
Once giants lived in the earth and in the darkness of chaos, they fooled Crom, and they took from him the enigma of steel.
Crom was angered, and the earth shook, and fire and wind struck down these giants, and they threw their bodies into the waters.
But in their rage, the gods forgot the secret of steel and left it on the battlefield, and we who found it. We are just men, not gods, not giants, just men.
And the secret of steel has always carried with it a mystery.
You must learn its riddle,you must learn its discipline, for no one, no one in this world can you trust, not men, not women, not beasts… This you can trust” [- steel hardtail]
You can’t say that about aluminium, or carbon fibre for that matter 😐

It rusts too.

I got told on this very forum that steel can give you tetanus

The problem with steel is that as makers try to emulate the features of carbon or alloy by using steel, it loses exactly the properties that make it a viable alternative. Super lightweight steel becomes too fragile, and super lightweight heat-treated steel becomes uneconomic to attempt to repair. It has it’s place as a frame material, but shouldn’t try to be something that it isn’t.

Steel bends. Alloy and carbon just snap.

Embarassing – about 1:10 onwards will have you a little surprised

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDVpRSNtcPQ[/video]

Embarassing – about 1:10 onwards will have you a little surprised

I’m sorry. I’ve never come across getting my bike stuck in a vice whilst out riding before 😉

That’s quite an impressive video though.

My steel frame makes nice ‘ting’ noises….

you can use fridge magnets on one……..

Some of them ride really, really well. Others are cheap to make. Others still are neither but sell anyway because steel iz real.

stAn-Bad Brains MBC – Member
“Fire and wind come from the sky, from the gods of the sky, but Crom is our god. Crom, and he lives in the earth.
Once giants lived in the earth and in the darkness of chaos, they fooled Crom, and they took from him the enigma of steel.
Crom was angered, and the earth shook, and fire and wind struck down these giants, and they threw their bodies into the waters.
But in their rage, the gods forgot the secret of steel and left it on the battlefield, and we who found it. We are just men, not gods, not giants, just men.
And the secret of steel has always carried with it a mystery.
You must learn its riddle,you must learn its discipline, for no one, no one in this world can you trust, not men, not women, not beasts… This you can trust” [- steel hardtail]
You can’t say that about aluminium, or carbon fibre for that matter

POSTED 4 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

Great post!! Crom sounds awesome, I think I’d like to have a beer with crom…does he ride a 29er tho?? 😉

Because I have one and it rides nice innit.

Why would anyone buy a steel frame over alloy?

Steel is, as has been pointed out before, and alloy itself, but as we gather you mean Aluminium (commonly abbreviated “Ally”) I’ll carry on. Each material commonly used in bicycle frame manufacture has its plus points and its weaknesses. Dependent on what you want to do with the frame, one material or another may lend itself to the job in hand better than the others. So people would generally buy a steel frame, when they feel that the inherent properties of steel when used in a type of frame they desire to buy, are on the whole beneficial and the advantages outweigh the cons.

what are the benefits?

Steel is stronger than Ally. It is also stiffer. But it is also heavier. Ally frames become stiffer and stronger by using more of it, in much larger cross sectional diameters, the big “coke can” style tubes with larger wall thicknesses if you get me. By design, an Ally frame can be made as strong and stiff as a steel one (probably stiffer), yet still weigh slightly less. Or it could be half the weight, yet nowhere near as strong or stiff, depending on what the designer chooses to do to the design.

Of course the same can be said again for steel. Use thin walled, narrow section 853 tubes, and the frame will still be strong and it will also be pretty light, but it will probably be quite flexy (Think Ritchey P20, Old Bontrager Race Lites, Roberts DOGS BOLX etc.). You can then go the other way, use profiles similar to those you would use in an Ally frame, the weight will be quite a bit higher, but MY GOD it will be strong (think Cotic BFe, NS Surge, most Dirt Jump BMX’s etc.).

What I’m trying to say is, it’s as much, if not a lot more, what the designer chooses to do with any given material to make it ride a certain way. There’s lots of myths about each frame material, and given that each material has its own inherent plus points and minuses, they often tend to make certain styles of frame out of certain materials and not others. Steel has (maybe quite rightly, maybe just as a bit of a retro hang up) become more popular again over the last 5-10 years. It might just be that there’s a lot more decent steel frames on the market now, at affordable prices, than there was 10 years ago, but also someone has driven that market desire so there is something in it.

All I know is I’ve ridden many steel frames, many ally, many Ti and a few carbon. I’ve ridden “forgiving” ally bikes, steel bikes that would shake your fillings out if you rode it over a small pebble, Ti bikes that have failed very quickly (so much for that bike for life theory!) and Carbon bikes that have lasted many many seasons (not just the 1 season then throw it away policy most Carbon haters will say they’re only good for). I have also ridden their complete contrasts too.

Geometry is much more important than frame material when all is said and told.

But on a personal level, I quite like steel. I’ve grown up making things myself, in tool rooms, and learnt to use lathes and milling machines at a young age and make things for myself. I also like the smell of steel for some reason, and it reminds me of lots of nice things… And sometimes, the only justification we may ever need is a personal one!

Steel bends. Alloy and carbon just snap.

Even though I never got any further than the 1st year of an Engineering Degree (changed to something else when I failed the maths), I can tell you categorically that Carbon and Ally don’t always just snap. And neither does steel always just bend! Suggest you google “Youngs Modulus of Elasticity” and have a read before you make outlandish statements… WAY too many variables will be involved in each situation, but I have seen both Carbon and Ally used in situations before where they have been required to be quite flexible and/or ductile.

Why would anyone buy a steel frame over alloy?

Why buy either – titanium or carbon (can) have the comfy/strength benefits of steel and the lightness/non-corrosive nature of aluminium.

Ride a Soul and you’ll understand…

Even though I never got any further than the 1st year of an Engineering Degree (changed to something else when I failed the maths), I can tell you categorically that Carbon and Ally don’t always just snap. And neither does steel always just bend! Suggest you google “Youngs Modulus of Elasticity” and have a read before you make outlandish statements… WAY too many variables will be involved in each situation, but I have seen both Carbon and Ally used in situations before where they have been required to be quite flexible and/or ductile.

I’m not saying Carbon and Aluminium can’t be flexible. But when it comes to bikes, there’s always a threshold in that flexibility. And of course steel has it too…but I have personally brought steel back from beyond that threshold, which wouldn’t have happened (at least not safely) in the vast majority of aluminium frames. And that has always been considered an advantage to steel framed bicycles, has it not?

But my post was badly worded, yes.

I think you don’t understand the concept of ‘threshold’ in this context.

The only choice I got when I bought my bike was cream steel or black steel.

I think you don’t understand the concept of ‘threshold’ in this context.

Explain it then.

Just got back in from a ride on my sanderson life, rides nicer than any other HT I’ve owned, Ti included.

I’m not saying Carbon and Aluminium can’t be flexible. But when it comes to bikes, there’s always a threshold in that flexibility. And of course steel has it too…but I have personally brought steel back from beyond that threshold, which wouldn’t have happened (at least not safely) in the vast majority of aluminium frames. And that has always been considered an advantage to steel framed bicycles, has it not?

OK, when steel does fail, it does so in a less dramatic way than Aluminium, which in turn fails a whole lot less dramatically than Carbon, which is I think what you’re saying right? If that’s the case, then we agree.

And as another aside, Steel is soooooo much easier to work with than any of the other materials, which in turn means there’s a lot more people out there who have had a go at making their own frames out of it. Also it’s easier to repair, so if extreme longevity is important, then Steel can often be seen as desirable.

But when it comes to bikes, there’s always a threshold in that flexibility.

In other words, when you exceed that threshold the frame is unrepairable.

…but I have personally brought steel back from beyond that threshold,

Then, by definition, you haven’t reached that threshold.

Steel is capable of being repaired and can take more in the way of abuse than alu frames in certain circumstances, but it’s not magic.

OK, when steel does fail, it does so in a less dramatic way than Aluminium, which in turn fails a whole lot less dramatically than Carbon, which is I think what you’re saying right? If that’s the case, then we agree.

Exactly what I mean, yes. And worded much better than my post.

Just got back in from a ride on my sanderson life, rides nicer than any other HT I’ve owned, Ti included.

But it’s no Maverick! 😉