Road Cycling - Tell me about scandium frames

I'm playing with the idea of building up a light bike this summer, with money from my summer job. I already have an 80s steel bianchi with 2003 veloce and centaur. It weighs about 22 lb. Not super light, but a pleasure to ride.

Recently, my friend has been telling about how great scandium is. Blah blah blah how it's as light as aluminum and rides like steel, etc. I don't really know much about it at all though. I would like to build the whole bike for less than 1500, don't know if that's possible. I know interloc makes a scandium frame for 700 bucks or so. I've heard good things about them.

So, everyone, please educate me on everything there is to know about scandium.

http://www.63xc.com/scotn/metal.htm

fssb
sparky

uh... there was nothing about scandium on that page

If I recall correctly, scandium bikes are really not mostly scandium plus something else... I think it's mostly aluminum with some scandium alloyed in with it.

it's more about general metalurgy and stuff like that. what to think about when manufacturers quote stuff about x alloy is 23.546% stiffer than y alloy or whatever.

fssb
sparky

Sweet scandium frame bike. http://tinyurl.com/37j7w

Midway through the bike description is more info. on 'the scandium story'

There's a .pdf file on this page

http://www.eastonbike.com/TECH_FAQ/tech_techbull.html

Granted it's via the Easton web-site, but at least it's info...

I owned a Wilier Scandium frame. It was light, comfortable and not very stiff. The tubes were pretty small around, which gave it a steel-like ride. I think scandium's greater strength allows a skinney tubed frame. Its probably a good frame for a 150 lb rider.
My brother just got a new scandium frame made by Opera. It seems to have a fatter tubeset, and from my 5 minute test, seems stiffer. Until recently, I think only the thinner tubeset was made. Both framesets are externally butted to some degree.

As a follow up, I have a Scandium frame...Kona Kapu. While I don't have much (any) frame of reference, I LOVE this frame. It fits me well, and is very comfortable. Seems light to me, but I always here about these guys w/ sub 20lb bikes, and mine sure isn't.

Interestingly, according to Easton's article referenced above, Scandium does nothing to make the tubing itself stronger. They say that it's real advantage is in its weldability, so that the joints are stronger....I think I got that right.

I have a VooDoo year 2000 scandium cyclocross frame and I love it.It's very light and does ride like steel.It actually feels better than my steel mtn.bike on some roads/trails.
I use this bike for my road club races and 100k rides.It works great BUT it isn't stiff.I weigh 135 right now and I can flex the frame.A bit of "give" is nice on the trails but not so great when you're climbing a hill or sprinting.
Next year I'll probably get the new 2005 Giant carbon frame.

As a follow up, I have a Scandium frame...Kona Kapu. While I don't have much (any) frame of reference, I LOVE this frame. It fits me well, and is very comfortable. Seems light to me, but I always here about these guys w/ sub 20lb bikes, and mine sure isn't.

Interestingly, according to Easton's article referenced above, Scandium does nothing to make the tubing itself stronger. They say that it's real advantage is in its weldability, so that the joints are stronger....I think I got that right.

I think that's right. All 7005-series Al has similar strength and stiffness properties, whether it's from Easton, Alcoa, or Columbus. They all use trace elements such as Zn, Mn to keep the fine grain structure in the weld zone.

At any rate, the ride qualities of a frame would depend on the wall thickness, size and shapes of the tubing, rather than the exact alloying elements. If you check out the Easton website, you can see the selection of sizes, thickness and shapes of main tubes available to framebuilders. Those choices allow the builder to select tubing for the ride (and frame life) you think you want.