Oversized frame tubes, ugly bling or actually beneficial?

My dusty memory seems to drag up tensile strength. Steel alloys dont need the diameters of aluminium alloys. Many steel tubing available in the 1970's and 80's was as thin as 0.9mm with butts of 0.3 (Tange Champion No.1/ Columbus SL etc) with tube diameters of 26mm.

The equivalent aluminium alloy tube would have to be larger to achieve the same strength but would then add the natural properties of aluminium - light weight, stiffness and rigidity, this was what was needed by designers of these new fangled things.

In the 1980's tubing and lug supply were the limiting factor in what was available to the then burgeoning MTB/ ATB designer/ builders. Aluminium was easier to manipulate with no worries about nasty gasses (you cant weld 531 etc) so it was naturally the choice of material until carbon became more widely available (and incidentally its an environmental nightmare!). The availability of specialist aluminium tubing rocketed along with the MTB.

If you want to then market your product, you'll obviously want to copy what the market leaders were doing and release similar looking products and with aluminium being in cheap plentiful supply you have your answer.

But that answer was for about 15 - 20 years ago!

Carbon fibre is the cheap nasty wonder material that is being pumped out by the ton. If you want to sell bikes it must be carbon, anything else is old tat or chie chie hipster material.

Incidentally, a lot of those old cheap far east frames actually ride pretty well and are still around nearly 30 years on. The then top end stuff has either cracked or holed itself (Cannondale corrosion) through poor manipulation (Manitou) or failed in some spectacular way.
 
legrandefromage":28qy62bd said:
In the 1980's tubing and lug supply were the limiting factor in what was available to the then burgeoning MTB/ ATB designer/ builders. Aluminium was easier to manipulate with no worries about nasty gasses (you cant weld 531 etc) so it was naturally the choice of material until carbon became more widely available (and incidentally its an environmental nightmare!). The availability of specialist aluminium tubing rocketed along with the MTB.

Personally I have no love for aluminium both in terms of 'feel' and the look of the oversized tubes, except on bikes where frame stiffness can only be positive because you have front and rear suspension. My old Marin FRS was really fun.

I've got 2 pairs of Mang Moly Dynatech forks which look welded (no lugs and not bonded), and I had assumed they would have been 531 as it was the cheapest Mang Moly, but if you say 531 can't be welded I have to wonder what exactly my forks are made of. I'll check again tonight, perhaps I'm wrong and they are actually brazed. Either way, they are very light for a fork with a super long, threaded steerer.

I went on a club MTB ride on Sunday, and having not been for about a year there were a few guys who hadn't seen the Rourke before. One guy was particularly interesting in the frame, apparently he'd never seen a steel MTB frame before and at first thought I'd adapted it from an old road bike (!). Everyone was surprised by how light the bike is (!). Sadly (or perhaps thankfully) my Portuguese isn't quite good enough to explain the benefits of a well made steel frame, and why their beercan frames are shite.
 
i do remember moving from my original P7 and looking at an E4.

I couldn't afford it, and tried out the then Evo 2. Hated it. didn't really like the way it looked with it's 'massive oversized' tubes (which looking back actually look quite tame). Felt harsh and no where near as compliant as my P7.

In the end I bought another P7.
 
Re:

My first real bike was a GT Tempest and GT's hold a special bit of nostalgia for me. My second bike was a Trek 930. I loved the feel of that steel frame. It was a big improvement in ride quality for me. The aluminum is very stiff and the stiffness only increases with the triple triangle design of the GT's. I have two zaskars at the moment but I enjoy riding my Team Marin and ride it more than any of my aluminum bikes (I also have a Trek 6700 SLR). The Marin is Columbus steel. It has a better ride quality than any other hard tail that I've owned.
 
I had a mahusive Zaskar for about three rides. Probably fine for loony racers. Waaaay too stiff for me. A Grizzly 10 was actually nicer to ride but fugly. The broom was ally but cracked. nothing else has, other than the the second broom frame.

Sticking to steel.
 
Monark Silver King from 1948

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1938!

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1989 Cunningham

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Alan MTB

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I cant see anything wrong with aluminium as a frame material, its cheap, plentiful and great when done properly

Unlike Manitou, or Orange or countless other who didnt do it right!

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I didn't want to mention spud's bike but you go and have to set him off again. I can hear the sobs if I open the window.....
 
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