How material is the material?

So I’m closing down my choices of a road bias gravel bike to the Dolan GXA / GXC and the Planet X Tempest.  I can get all three bikes with the same groupset within my C2W allowance and there isn’t a signficant enough difference in cost for that to be a real decider.  For what it’s worth, I prefer the looks of carbon and Ti bikes but like the dropped seatstays on the GXA.

Anyway … I’m not looking for reviews on these bikes, that’s with me now.  What I really want to know is if all things were equal, what would be your frame material of choice and why?

I ride a steel gravel bike and I think I’ll stick with that.

The inherent comfort reminds me of my 1990s rigid MTBs, and frame weight is pretty low down my list of priorities.

I had an alu gravel bike and it was great. My steel Trig isn’t so fast, but it’s more comfy and just nicer to ride, for me.

On a road bike, Carbon. I haven’t ridden a Ti bike before, so no idea about that, but I just like riding a carbon road bike. They even sound different.

Hardtail, I like steel.

Full suss mtb, don’t care really.

Depends on what I was wanting to do.

For racing and speed I’d probably go carbon as Ti is going to be heavier.

For a long hard life I’d probably go Ti as it won’t scuff and chip the same way paint will.

To be honest, other design factors come into it as well – like how easy is it going to be to strip and service (BB, headsets, cables/hoses)

I’ve got bikes made of titanium, steel, carbon and aluminium.

If money were no object they would all be titanium, apart from the time trial bike as you really need carbon for the weird shapes. Ti and steel feel very similar to ride, to me anyway, but ti is a bit lighter so that swings it for me.

Sorry, just noticed the “road bias” gravel bit.

I’d go alu or carbon then.

I’d go carbon, as the bikes I’ve most enjoyed riding and owning have been carbon.

IF it were all equal – Ti.  Every time.  But it’s not.   Like others above, I have all 3 materials and in a variety of grades, but Ti is the best allrounder.  It’s lighter and smoother than Aluminium and can be as nice in feel as VERY good carbon.  Another place you gain is galvanics.  The inserts (guards, racks, etc) on my carbon commuter have basically corroded to dust in 4 hard years of commuting.   The ones on the Ti bike are perfect.  Both bikes had Ti bolts and copaslip.   It also doesn’t mark as easily as paint and doesn’t sound like a plastic bottle when things ping off it.

Carbon – questionable environmental aspects,

Aluminium – harsh, unless small diameter tubes then work hardening is an issue

Ti – has to be welded under conditions that the majority of the bike industry cannot achieve.

Steel – if it was invented tomorrow would be touted as the wonder metal for bike frames.

My only cycling regret was selling a steel framed gravel bike that I’d done lots thousands of miles on.

The question is fundamentally flawed and imposible to answer though because

if all things were equal, what would be your frame material of choice

Things are not equal, are they.

Take my 2020 Hightower Alloy – rode great, but very heavy because the fundamental frame design had been put together based on Carbon – to hit the budget alloy version, the design was not optimised and there was a lot of additional material and dead weight. You cannot do the same shape and design in the two materials.

My Oranges however – that is the Aluminium bike frame perfected – very light, very strong, welded and fabricated putting material where its needed and not where it isnt.

Steel bikes – I”ve had loads of the archetypal ‘UK Steel hardtail, so compliant, so feel, so comfy…’ and yes, some of them were lovely comfortable feelsome bikes but also some of them rode like they were made from Scaffold Tubes, heavy, dead, brutal.

Some people think you are mental buying a Road Bike made out of Aluminium. But some people (cannondale!?) can make beautifully compliant, very lightweight, fast, lively bikes out of Alloy that dont beat you up at all.

But a cheap carbon road bike can be awful.

This is ranking with the ‘make a standard standard’ thread in the way that it is impossible to answer technically, a massively flawed non-question (sorry!).

Carbon all the way for a road based bike. Smooths out the road buzz, and is lighter. I’ve had decent alloy road frames, and I always end up resenting the extra weight. Even my rat bike turbo/commuter is carbon :p

This is ranking with the ‘make a standard standard’ thread in the way that it is impossible to answer technically, a massively flawed non-question (sorry!).

The thread is just aimed to be conversational really – hence the second part of “what would be your frame material of choice and why”.  I don’t imagine anyone will come up with anything that will bias my thoughts … it’s just the usual talking bollocks down the pub thread.

Thing is pretty much all materials can be built in wildly different ways. Like, alu vs steel is the classic for mtb but if you blind tested an old Inbred and an original Scandal, I reckon pretty much everyone would get it the wrong way round. I’ve had stiff ti and noodly ti and now I have middle-of-the-road ti, I’ve had flexy alu and rock solid lumpen steel, and carbon can be damn nearly whatever it wants to be with a good enough designer and factory.

But there’s also a bit of, I dunno, determinism too. Like, most companies if they’re making a ti bike will make it light which will usually mean it’s softer (and less durable). Carbon likewise will tend to be light and stiff. Not because it has to be but because that’s what people except. Steel is a wee bit different because making a “steel feeling” frame is actually pretty hard, and expensive, it amounts to “thin tubes” so most steel frames are absolute lumps. But still, steel can be very stiff if the designer chooses too, just, that’s probably less common than the ones that are stiff just cos they’re made out of the cheapest scaffold tubes.

In the end I think you pretty much have to testride. Or just be really good at justifying your purchase afterwards 😉