Aluminum is essentially a marketing gimmick, much like carbon fiber. The primary reason for its use is that it is simply easier to mass produce bikes with machines. This explains the prevalence of aluminum bikes since the 1990s, a trend fueled by outsourcing and globalism.
What surprised me is how durable high tensile steel is. People tour all over the world on their three speeds and Dutch bikes. Because high tensile tubing is not normally butted, it breaks at the stays after 50,000km; however, for everyday use, it is a profoundly durable metal
chinese__investor on
Titanium is better
opvgreen on
This plot shows three different alloys of steel (which show widely different fatigue failure behavior), and only one of aluminum alloy. Aluminum alloys are not a monolith and modern alloys almost certainly have much better fatigue lifetimes than what is plotted here. Still worse than cro-mo but high enough that most riders will never ride their bike enough to cause such a failure.
h0b03 on
It’s all a push and pull of desired outcome, there isn’t one do it all frame material. Carbon is high performance, stiff, and extremely tunable, aluminum is very stiff and lightweight, along with being more durable than carbon, and there’s steel which is complaint, sturdy, and long lasting. At least in simplified terms.
At the end of the day tire choice and frame geometry make a bigger difference in ride/performance than frame material. I think for most people aluminum is the best choice. Good balance of weight, durability, and cost. It can also be a very high performance material, my alu track bike is super stiff and weighs like 14lbs
onlyswob on
I guess you have never heard about the specific strength ratio, which besides the pure strength of a material also takes its density into account.
notForced on
I’ve owned and ridden many different bikes, Steel, Carbon, and Aluminum. The only frames I’ve ever broken have been aluminum. Carbon is pretty great, people just don’t like to admit it.
chimi_hendrix on
I’ve owned probably 2 dozen steel bikes including some high end Columbus stuff. Favorite bike of all time is still an Easton 7005 hardtail
7 Comments
Aluminum is essentially a marketing gimmick, much like carbon fiber. The primary reason for its use is that it is simply easier to mass produce bikes with machines. This explains the prevalence of aluminum bikes since the 1990s, a trend fueled by outsourcing and globalism.
What surprised me is how durable high tensile steel is. People tour all over the world on their three speeds and Dutch bikes. Because high tensile tubing is not normally butted, it breaks at the stays after 50,000km; however, for everyday use, it is a profoundly durable metal
Titanium is better
This plot shows three different alloys of steel (which show widely different fatigue failure behavior), and only one of aluminum alloy. Aluminum alloys are not a monolith and modern alloys almost certainly have much better fatigue lifetimes than what is plotted here. Still worse than cro-mo but high enough that most riders will never ride their bike enough to cause such a failure.
It’s all a push and pull of desired outcome, there isn’t one do it all frame material. Carbon is high performance, stiff, and extremely tunable, aluminum is very stiff and lightweight, along with being more durable than carbon, and there’s steel which is complaint, sturdy, and long lasting. At least in simplified terms.
At the end of the day tire choice and frame geometry make a bigger difference in ride/performance than frame material. I think for most people aluminum is the best choice. Good balance of weight, durability, and cost. It can also be a very high performance material, my alu track bike is super stiff and weighs like 14lbs
I guess you have never heard about the specific strength ratio, which besides the pure strength of a material also takes its density into account.
I’ve owned and ridden many different bikes, Steel, Carbon, and Aluminum. The only frames I’ve ever broken have been aluminum. Carbon is pretty great, people just don’t like to admit it.
I’ve owned probably 2 dozen steel bikes including some high end Columbus stuff. Favorite bike of all time is still an Easton 7005 hardtail