What is you favourite frame material? POLL

[graham1975]

Hi guys what is your favourite frame material and why?
Just asking what your thoughts are as i have just purchased a On One 456 Carbon frame and build it up, pics on here under 1998 bikes.
Was looking at the Ti but double the price of the carbon one and the carbon frame is lighter than the Ti and i rekon it has as much flex in it, never been a fan of alloy on a hardtail due to the harsh ride and steel is just too heavy.

 

[Harryburgundy]

Steel....and sometimes it's not about the actual weight (and quality steel frames arn't that heavy) but how they ride.

 

[orange71]

Steel....and sometimes it's not about the actual weight (and quality steel frames arn't that heavy) but how they ride.

+1

 

[MikeD]

Bit of an odd question, really. A bike is what it is, what it's made of is only part of what makes it so.

 

[highlandsflyer]

I have answered based on what I have ridden more than anything else, rather than my personal preference which is a high quality steel alloy, which I guess would have been 'steel' in your poll, rather than Al?

All things otherwise being equal I like steel in a rigid.

Saying that I love the ride of a light Al rigid.

More to do with geometry and so forth than the frame material at the end of the day. There is more difference between wearing SPDs and platforms with Doc Martens than there is between Al and Ti, in my opinion.

 

[Sparkzz]

I have a carbon bike which i love riding due to the weight of it, and "zippyness" but then my other bike is an ally frame and love as you can thrash it around with confidence.

I voted carbon though as this is my favourite.

 

[Scougar]

Alloy, middle ground on weight and price. Lighter but still reasonably strong. Would go Ti but that I assume is stupidly expensive (given I know how much titanium exhausts typically cost).

Also alloy because I wouldn't trust a carbon mountain bike. On a pure road bike possibly.

 

[lewis1641]

alloy - harsh and it breaks eventually

carbon - breaks eventually!

titanium - expensive but also prone to eventual failure

steel - no significant weight penalty, springy ride, if it breaks easily and cheaply fixed.

would like to try a metal composite stumpjumper and a scadnium frame though, see how they ride

 

[highlandsflyer]

I think what we are talking about here is somewhat of a chimera, in more than one way.

My old Kleins had some carbon composite in them, as my DBR WCF do.

This gives you a combination of characteristics that perhaps are more than the sum of their parts.

Even when we are talking about Al full sussers, other metal is also used in parts integral to the frame, without which it would not be a frame, in the same way tent poles themselves usually do not make a tent frame without their end pieces.

Carbon fibre itself is of course not used in isolation even to make carbon frame components, it is not really a frame material in the same sense as the others being considered.

In fact the truth is that most frames are actually some form of composite.

The response you will keep hearing is that steel is heavy.

Well, it does not need to be. However you have to pay somewhat for lighter weight and the extra work that entails for the builder, tube maker.

A high end steel frame can weigh most of a kilo more than the carbon frame you might pay half the price for.

If you buy new...

But you can get a sub 2kg steel frame for buttons (<£50) and build up a 24/25lbs steel steed that you could ride around the world quite happily, not quite sure I would feel that way about any other material.

My old Marin Sausalito was one such bike. Bought it from a bike messenger and then thrashed it over tens of thousands of miles with panniers and it never skipped a beat.

I wouldn't do the same with a carbon or Al bike.

Nor Ti, although I can understand those who would in the same way some guys go round the world with motorbikes they could not get repaired locally anywhere.

 

[Russell]

My favourite bikes (both road and MTB) in the shed at the moment happen to be built on carbon frames, so I voted carbon.

No real surprise to see steel romping ahead though is it?