Poll: Carbon, Alloy or Bamboo? Which Material For Mountain Bikes?

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Ok, imagine this. You’re in the market for a new mountain bike, but rather than simply choosing which wheel size, groupset, or brand you want, you also get the option of any material too.

Yes, some bike available in both alloy and carbon, sometimes steel or alloy, but what if you had more options to choose from?

the bamboo bastard
Wil made a bamboo bike last year, and we’ll never let him forget it.

It’s not likely that you’ll be able to wander into a shop and choose a bamboo full suspension bike, or carbon fibre unicycle, but if you were given that option what would you choose?

Would you like the latest Orange Alpine 6 E but made from titanium? Or how about a Canyon Spectral built from Bamboo? Or even a 3D printed Pole Stamina? We would love to hear what material you want your mountain bikes made from, so please take part in our poll below and feel free to join the discussion in the comments section below.

[poll id=”772″]

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Andi is a gadget guru and mountain biker who has lived and ridden bikes in China and Spain before settling down in the Peak District to become Singletrack's social media expert. He is definitely more big travel fun than XC sufferer but his bike collection does include some rare hardtails - He's a collector and curator as well as a rider. Theory and practice in perfect balance with his inner chi, or something. As well as living life based on what he last read in a fortune cookie Andi likes nothing better than riding big travel bikes.

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Comments (15)

    No option for titanium?

    Titanium added

    Um, I hit beryllium by mistake. I trust it’s an awesome material for building bikes from and not something really nasty…

    For the high-end mass market, hybrid construction using a carbon fiber (or graphene/carbon) base structure combined with aluminum or titanium impact plates is probably the future.

    It seems a bit pointless without knowing *why*.
    Choice based on:
    Cost
    Ride quality
    Aesthetics
    Weight
    Environmental friendliness

    You are overthinking it uberpod :-)

    tbh i think alu is hard to beat. (i own a carbon bike)

    all the others are way down the list

    As uberpod

    My bikes –

    FS – Carbon – This manufacturer only make carbon frames.
    HT – Aluminium – This manufacturer only make aluminium frames.
    Road – Carbon – This manufacture make both carbon and aluminium but this bike was on offer hence getting the carbon version.

    Aluminium. Light, strong, cheap. Steel is over-rated, carbon is not strong enough.

    I have aluminium, steel, have had carbon dident see any real advantage over the alloy , I voted titanium, have titanium parts on a 12 year old motorcycle as good now as the day they were new, not a hint of corrosion nice and light look good and anyway i would just like a titanium bike.

    Having completed the transalps MTB race back in 2011 on the Brookes Bamboo Bike I would recommend it even just for the fun of seeing the other competitors disbelief. Great fun and excellent smooth ride. Still riding it today regularly..

    @ Yak Beryllium is an unbelievably nasty element. It’s very toxic because it displaces magnesium from the enzymes that run your body’s chemical reaction, more specifically the enzymes that control DNA replication. It’s more expensive than titanium to boot. Inside a metal tube it should be fine, but as soon as a good rock hits your paint and leaves bare metal, you leave a bit of beryllium dust somehwere.

    No option for unobtainium?

    Full Suss: Carbon Fibre. But for everything else, Bamboo, it’s a truly awesome material. And build it yourself, there’s no better feeling than riding a bike made by your own hand.

    What about Allite Super Magnesium?

    If it doesn’t fail at fatigue life, it could be quite appealing.

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