Steel Frames in the Tour de France

[richardf]

Kelme were on Gios steel frames at one point in the 90s but can't quite remember when...

UPDATE: was in 1994

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comunidad_ ... cling_team)

 

[one-eyed_jim]

That frame is lugged so must be steel.

This frame is lugged steel:

http://www.cyclingwebsite.net/beeldfich ... ldid=11987

but there's no guarantee that the team bikes in early-season team photographs are the same bikes raced in the Tour. For example, Motorola were pictured with steel Merckx/Caloi bikes in the '95 and '96 team portraits, but seem to have been riding Litespeed/Merckx/Caloi titanium bikes in the Tour.

If you can tell what Backstedt's riding in the second picture, you're a better man than I.

 

[garethrl]

As a wild card, when did the yellow bikes on the Mavic neutral service car have steel frames for the last time? And if that post-dates steel team frames, then did anybody have to use one?

Pretty rare that you see any of the neutral bikes being ridden these days - at least on TV, though maybe some lowly domestiques fly under the radar on them from time to time.

 

[CTK]

There was a load of really sexy LOOK frames for sale on ebay a couple of months ago from a seller in Italy... my memory is awful but... I think they were used in the mid nineties- they had a really fat ovalised down tube and you would swear they were made of alu but were actually 853 steel...

not remotely helpful I'm sorry- Big Mig rode a stell Pinarello Crono with 180+mm cranks

 

[richardf]

Yeah I saw them - in nice retro colours too, but a bit pricey IMO.

 

[cchris2lou]

Pro teams sell their bikes at end of the season .

my neighbour has a Liberia from RMO , and a friend has a TVT from team Z .

 

[cannondale king]

will steel ever come back to the tour is the next question i think

 

[john]

That frame is lugged so must be steel.

If you can tell what Backstedt's riding in the second picture, you're a better man than I.

Agreed! If you can see from that pic you must have eyes like a sh1t house rat.

Have emailed the ITV tour coverage, see if they bother answering...

 

[terryhfs]

Lugged doesn't automatically equal steel. Steel frames can be fillet brazed (and often were to get the custom fit for a pro) and aluminium and carbon can both be lugged.

I don't think steel will ever make a comeback in road-racing. It's just not possible to get the right amounts of stiffness and compliance in the right places that you can with other materials.

I'd be interested to see how 953 holds up against the competition. So far it's only really been used for boutique frames rather than race workhorses.

 

[one-eyed_jim]

Lugged doesn't automatically equal steel. Steel frames can be fillet brazed (and often were to get the custom fit for a pro) and aluminium and carbon can both be lugged.

That's true (and steel can be TIG welded too, of course), but Backstedt's Merckx in the posed picture is clearly steel. There are some forms of construction that might allow the different materials to be confused (a lugged Dynatech in steel or titanium, for example, or a lugged Cadex in aluminium or carbon). A lugged aluminium Vitus or Alan - or Caminargent even - is clearly aluminium, while a lugged steel Masi 3V isn't obviously steel. But while lugged doesn't automatically mean steel, that Merckx (in the first picture) is clearly both.

I'd be interested to see how 953 holds up against the competition. So far it's only really been used for boutique frames rather than race workhorses.

My feeling is that it won't have much impact outside the high-end leisure market, lovely though it is. We've already seen Metax come and go, and the competition from other materials - cheap Ti and carbon in particular - is fiercer now than it was then.