General Cycling Discussion - Good read on frame metallurgy

While searching for some technical info on titanium bicycle frames, I found a web site with good articles on the technical properties and procedures for making bicycle frames from steel, aluminum, titanium, and carbon fiber. I don't know if it's been posted before. The DB problem seems to have erased a lot of threads.

http://www2.sjsu.edu/orgs/asmtms/artcle/articl.htm

Thanks, Live, fascinating. Also confirms the point i made on one of that other threads, that steel (& Ti) can be flexed an infinite # of times as long as the stress is below their failure threshold. (Alu on the other hand will eventually fail after a certain # of stress cycles).

BTW, why are bike tubes round (or roundish) in cross section as opposed to square, triangular, I-beam shaped, etc?

How many miles should i expect from my Sakae Litage aluminum road fork? It's treated gently.

The article is really quite good. I hope it gets updated as newer metallurgical techniques show up. For instance, there are plenty of exciting things happening in the world of carbon fibre such as high-strength nanotubes that promise being 10,000 times thinner than current commercial grade fibres with about 10 times the stiffness.

Maybe, khuoun, but that can't beat the results i get with my new super-alloy, Nonexistium. The only drawback is that each bike will cost $2.4 million, but i already have reservations from Bill Gates & several other customers.

Originally posted by Ebro38
Maybe, khuoun, but that can't beat the results i get with my new super-alloy, Nonexistium. The only drawback is that each bike will cost $2.4 million, but i already have reservations from Bill Gates & several other customers.

:)

There has been much research done in the field of vapor grown carbon fibre and nanotubes. The miltary (USAF) has conducted experiments with a materials development contractor and successfully produced cost-effecitve nanofibers that will lower the cost of current commercial grade CF from around $25/lbs to around $3/lbs. The increase in stiffness and strength with a substantial decrease in size means that material can be made much slimmer with a significant reduction in weight.

Carbon fibres, yeah. But nanotubes? What's that? Are they essentially the same thing?

Ebro38, any discount on your bike with the new super-alloy, nonexistium? Sounds great, should be able to let me win the tour de france! :D :p

Originally posted by oxologic
Carbon fibres, yeah. But nanotubes? What's that? Are they essentially the same thing?

Currently available carbon fibre is about 8 micrometers thick. Nanotube fibres or nanofibres are about 0.4 nanometers thick.

We don't anticipate any discounts on Nonexistium bikes. The metal is known to occur only on one particular closely-guarded asteroid in another solar system. My advice is to wait for a second-hand example.

Oh yeah? So where should Nonexistium be placed in the periodic table? If it can't be placed in the periodic table, there must be seriously something wrong with the periodic table.

No discounts? Nevermind, I can wait a few billion years to get my hands on that bike. Do you have any distributors where I can test ride one? hehes :D

Nonexistium is a super-alloy, it's made of a number of different metals, so it's not on the pediodic table at all.

The Nonexistium bike can be test-ridden at Alpha Centauri CycleShop. Website under construction. It's off the beaten track but well worth the trip.

(Note: Nonexistium bike not warranted to weigh the same on every planet.Check your local gravity).

I doubt the article will be updated. I think it was originally a series of installments for VeloNews, or some other cycling periodical 8 or 10 years ago (maybe more!).

The author, Scot Nicol (http://www.mtnbikehalloffame.com/inductees.cfm?page=99&mID=68), was the founder of Ibis Bicycles, which I think went bankrupt last year. I'm sure he's still doing something in the bike business.