Carbon retro?

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

Steel frames lose their 'zing', ie their stiffness very quickly, after not much abuse. Eddy Merckx changed his frames every six weeks because they had 'lost their fight', nothing, no material I suppose lasts forever.

Merckx was the cannibal and well known for his various neuroses. I've never read anything about that and I've a few books on Merckx.
Let's see the scientific facts for this. As in proper papers by qualified engineers and materials scientists, not just bro science.

 

[Canuk]

To be fair to eddy and his builders though, if you were to work at the very limit of steel's capabilities, you could make a super lightweight frame where fatigue would be a (shorter-term) problem, so a design life of only a few thousand miles hard riding.

A lot of well- used high end steel 60s frames are broken now, whereas the cheaper stuff can last forever if kept rust free.

I doubt there was much science behind Merckx's peccadilloes (I've watched a film of him adjusting his saddle for reach/elevation four times before a race start, and even during!). It was well known he had little admiration for the Kessels Colnago that his Molteni teammates rode, and would often go to obscure artisan builders (like Otero and José Marotias) to have custom frames built, then repainted in Molteni colours. I rode with his son Axel briefly, and he was similarly obsessive.

I guess when you're the best of the best, 5 times Tour winner you can pretty much demand what you want in terms of bikes and kit. Who's going to argue with the star? Sean Kelly was another hard rider who regularly swapped out his Vitus frames because they were 'done'.

When you're riding bikes for a living (rather than pottering round the lanes) and it's your bread and butter, a bike is just a tool. And when you're a star rider, you get exactly what you want, when you want it, whatever the cost. That's the life of a professional. I raced as a youngster a pro season in Brittany, up against some really fierce, hard b#stard Bretons, I worked for the Post Office 3 days a week to supplement the awful wages. All the big team riders treated their bikes like shit, because mostly, even the amateur teams had part time mechanics, who, as I remember were consumate professional wrench masters. Almost no one I rode with had any sentimentally for their bikes at all. I was lucky enough to get a made to measure team bike built at the Gitane factory, which I cherished.

Of course I sold it soon as I got back to blighty! Kinda regret it now

 

[grantoury]

 

[Imlach]

I personally wouldn't keep a steel frame around for more than a week, it goes all ramen noodles to me. Must be my sizeable shaven glutes. I know it can seem a bit neurotic, but I don't spend too much on them. Never more than 3k a week.

 

[Canuk]

From the official Vitus website:

"Though a bike from a grand tour victory is an obvious keepsake, Kelly and other pros can be excused for viewing their bikes as tools rather than vehicles of passion. In his day, especially when he was riding the classic screwed-and-glued alloy Vitus 979, it wasn’t uncommon for Kelly to burn through six or eight frames a year.

Revolutionary for the time, the bonded alloy frames were made from aluminum tubing glued onto cast lugs. This construction made the 979 remarkably light compared to the more common welded steel racing bikes, but the frame could grow “gummy” with hard use, according to Kelly. Meaning a brand-new bike for Paris-Roubaix would likely have been retired after the finish — a turnover rate not exactly conducive for forming sentimental bonds with a particular bike.

Despite the huge number of bikes Kelly rode in his career, there are certain ones he’s chosen to hang on to. They evoke the same passion in him that we mere mortals feel about the bikes we ride on the weekends. Bikes are a special thing in that way; for many of us, they take on far greater meaning than just the tools of sport they are."

In a typical 5 month pro season that could be a new frame every three weeks...! Kelly wasn't playing at it. Probably one of the hardest riders in the pelotons of the eighties.

 

[Canuk]

https://vitusbikes.com/blogs/stories/sean-kelly-on-his-vuelta-a-espana-winning-vitus

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

Steel frames lose their 'zing', ie their stiffness very quickly, after not much abuse.

Where are the facts to support this? Proper and checkable facts written by qualified engineers/materials scientists. I would be genuinely interested to see.

 

[Canuk]

Where are the facts to support this? Proper and checkable facts written by qualified engineers/materials scientists. I would be genuinely interested to see.

Above ^^ I'd take real world experience and expertise of cycling professionals, who rely 100% on their bikes to put food on the table, over any materials science muppet with a slide rule and a test rig.

The fact that Kelly had to 'retire' his Vitus carbon at the end of each and every Paris-Roubaix race, tells the professionals story. These guys aren't playing at it, they're in it to win races. Period.

Bikes are just tools, to be used and abused, and thrown away if necessary. When you're living depends on it....

 

[bikeworkshop]

And there's an element of swagger to spread the story that your rider has destroyed his frame after a few rides.

Intimidating the opposition was important back then

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

Above ^^ I'd take real world experience and expertise of cycling professionals, who rely 100% on their bikes to put food on the table, over any materials science muppet with a slide rule and a test rig.

The fact that Kelly had to 'retire' his Vitus carbon at the end of each and every Paris-Roubaix race, tells the professionals story. These guys aren't playing at it, they're in it to win races. Period.

Bikes are just tools, to be used and abused, and thrown away if necessary. When you're living depends on it....

The Vitus isn't steel, stay on topic. So no real facts then. Ok thanks.