Road Cycling - Steel = Real, Stainless = Painless???

As some of you know, I am starting to think about getting a new bike, and I have a strong preference for steel.

Anyone ever heard of using Stainless Steel for a bike? Opinions?

I have discovered a frame builder here in Germany, Uwe Marschall, who does custom frames out of Stainless Steel. He also does Reynolds 725 & 525, but his top of the line is “Noblex stainless steel 1.4301 / X 5 CrNi 1810”. Read: No Rust and High polish beautiful! You can also get a Reynolds tubed bike with stainless lugs. A stainless frame with fork runs about 1100 Eur (=$1100).

In addition to fitting the bike custom to your body, he also lets you choose your tube thickness depending on your needs. A frame typically weighs in at about 2.1-2.2 kgs, plus 650-700 grams for the forks, making a total of 2.8-2.9 kgs (6.1 lbs). Check out his website at: http://www.marschall-framework.de/english/frame_firma.html

A friend of mine has one, and I have to say, the highly polished lugs are absolutely beautiful. I really like the idea of getting a custom frame, and I like the idea of buying from a one-man operation.

Does anyone know about the suitability of stainless for a bike frame? How is it in terms of stiffness compared to a standard steel with Reynolds or Columbus or Dedacci? How does the price compare with other custom frames?

I am pretty light, so I am less concerned with the bit of extra weight that steel brings, than with getting something reasonably stiff, but comfortable on along ride.

As always, I appreciate your comments and advice.

Cheers,
Jamie

P.S. Unfortunately, it seems that the “Tests and Reviews” only appear in German. In one of them, you get the charming story of how this guy went from being an “A” level amateur racer and a welder by profession to setting up his own workshop. It seems to be a truly one-man operation, by a guy who is obsessed with “building the perfect bike,” as it said in one review.

Columbus once had a stainless tubeset.Stiifness of the basic metal should be no diffeent than other steel alloys.Stiff is in the tubes diameter and shaping.

http://www.bohemianbicycles.com/faq.htm

This guy uses stainless steel for some tubing and lugs, and he does the finest lugwork known to man.
Waterford also use stainless lugs.

Lug Meisters Henry James:
http://www.henryjames.com/productlug.html
also make stainless steel lugs and dropouts.

Jamie,

As others have stated there are builders
(well respected) who use stainless steel Lugs and tubesets.
The problem with stainless is needing higher
working temps when brazing etc. From what I've read
(e-mail between Richard Sachs and Dave Bohm and
a few others) Stainless is difficult to work with, harder
to file lugs etc. General concensus was its pretty nice
when completed but is labour intensive.
Here is a link to Dave Bohm's thoughts:
Classic rendezvous archives (http://search.bikelist.org/getmsg.asp?Filename=classicrendezvous.10208.0869.eml)
Check the archives for "stainless steel" at
Bikelist.org searchlist (http://search.bikelist.org/)
Oh yeah, here are some pics of Dave Bohms stainless frames:

Dave Bohm (http://www.bohemianbicycles.com/photo_gallery18.htm)
Marty

Thanks for the replies, guys. I read through quite a few of the pages you mentioned, too. Pretty logical, I suppose, that stainless would have basically the same properties as regular steel. With the wonderful addition of the high-gleam polish and no-rust (essentially).

By the way, Marschall does do silver brazing and makes a point of how the "cold" process is better for the metal (and for the environment). He discusses the many hours it takes to polish the frame properly (longer than actually putting the frame together). His lugs are sharp-looking, but don't have the baroque curls and swirls of Bohm's (which isn't my style anyway). So, his frames come out about 1/2 the cost of Bohm's fancier frames.

I still have to have a long chat with my riding buddy who has a Marschall to see whether he is 100% satisfied, but I think that I may have decided on my frame. So, it may well be a custom Marschall with Campy Chorus. Now it is just down to the details, like wheels.

Thanks again and cheers,
Jamie