Steel Vs Aluminum Bike Reddit

There is a vast range of steel tubing available for bikes.

Steel vs aluminum bike reddit. All good steel bikes are made with cro moly however not all cro. A good frame is almost everything. Here s the truth about frame materials and what actually matters in frame building. It sems that the bike you reach for instinctively has a good frame.

When choosing a bike material you would want to go with a material that is lightweight. Your local bike shop can give advice on what frame will work best for your. Titanium road bikes titanium has a distinct silver appearance. Cheap hi tensile steel bikes are heavy and ride like shit.

Lightweight material makes handling a bike a lot easier and increase on the ease of use. There is a much narrower range of aluminium tubing so it tends to occupy a certain niche. Although bike frames today are available in a wide variety of materials such as titanium carbon and even bamboo most entry and mid level cyclists will be deciding between an aluminum frame and a steel frame. As far as steel vs aluminum it depends what you can afford.

Think about it like this. Cro moly is a better steel alloy. Are aluminum frames stiff. Hi tensile steel hi ten is the cheapest metal that anyone uses to build adult bikes.

Steel on the other hand will bend before it breaks resulting in a far more resilient frame. Steel still has a place in this day and age it is famed for its smooth ride which is why touring and audax cyclists still lean towards it but the latest steel tubesets have given birth to renewed interest in high performance steel road bikes and even for racing as the madison genesis proved a couple of years ago with the volare 953. A steel bike is a perfect choice for an everyday or casual bicycle since it will perform equally to aluminum for most casual riders. Aluminum is not necessarily better than steel.

I am sensitive on climbs to weight but cannot say that i feel much difference between one fork material and another. Sheldon brown frame materials. Between the two steel bikes are heavier than aluminum bikes. An aluminum racing bike is usually best reserved for a racing cyclist or someone who s training for a race since it s less expensive than lighter materials like carbon fiber.

I am one of those battered old cyclists who s ridden steel alloy and the newer plastic stuff. The same is true in many respects of aluminum. And when aluminum fails it fails catastrophically. There s a misconception that steel bike frames are heavy and aluminum frames are light.

Are steel frames comfortable. Glass will break before it bends. Ok let s look at that range of steel.