halfspeed

Ten minutes off 200km is a pretty big deal for a racer.

sleepy

Sure is for a Racer.
Oh-I thought I was in the "41". My bad.

halfspeed

Racers are banned from the 41?

sleepy

Who said anything about Banned?

".....The Return of Aluminum bikes to the real world?" I thought "Real World" meant non-racers.
In any case, I feel the CAAD10 was the return, the 12 might be somewhat of a step away from that.

As for Velonews, first a bad review of CAAD12, then that article about Counterfeit Carbon... Meh, I'm just gonna step back and watch this industry implode like Atari in the 80's. If it doesn't, no sweat off my back, I already got my Pure Fix frame standing by.

halfspeed

Racing doesn't happen in the real world?

Deontologist

Aeroluminum.

Deontologist

Harshness is not an intrinsic property to any material. Problem with Al is that it has 1/3 of the Young's modulus of steel, so in layman's terms, it's 1/3 as stiff as steel (assuming identical geometries). So Al bikes compensate through geometry and tubing thickness. Big tubes are stiffer in torsion. So are thicker tubes (especially in bending). If you look at old steel bikes, they have very thin tubes compared to the tubes we see today. These thin tubes allow for vertical compliance.

Also, in the search for the ultimate aero bike, some aluminum bikes have teardrop shaped downtubes, with the major axis vertical and the minor axis horizontal. This does NOT allow for much vertical compliance at all.

Stucky

Right. AL is a soft metal. Beef it up enough to make a durable bicycle frame, and it will be harsh, unless you take care to make it thick where it needs to be, and thin where in can be; and use special shapes and thicknesses to compensate. Gary Klein seems to have gotten that down to an art form! (There are probably some other great AL bikes out there too, I just don't know of them)

I'll never understand how Klein was able to make such a stiff bike....that rides so beautifully- with no harshness.

I could practice brazing, and probnably build a steel frame that would ride decently. I could never do the same with AL- even if I were an expert TIG welder.

Leinster

I had a chainstay snap on a Columbus SL frame. Took it to the LBS to swap all the parts onto an old frame. LBS said "Why? We can weld that good as new." Which they did. For, IIRC, less than 30 or 40 Irish pounds (I wouldn't have been able to afford much more at the time), and I was back riding it 2 days later.

If that had happened on an AL bike, it'd be toast. A carbon frame would be looking at mailing away to a specialist repair place at a cost of hundreds of dollars, if I was lucky enough that they thought it was repairable.

caloso

Sometimes it feels surreal.

halfspeed

I'd take a broken carbon frame to my local carbon repair guy for a few bucks and a couple of beers. Closest guy to repair steel would be about 90 minutes away and I'd be queued behind custom frame building.

Leinster

You happen to have a carbon builder local to you. That's not a solution that works for everybody. There's a custom frame builder local to me who works all in steel. I don't know where I'd go to get carbon done.

But the thing is, if I had a broken steel bike, I could take it to any halfway competent professional welder, who needn't even have any experience with bikes, and he'd put it back together and have it, if not pro-race worthy, then at the very least capable of doing basic duty as a bicycle. The LBS I took my old bike to weren't frame builders, but they had welding equipment, and could fix steel bike frames for a very reasonable price.

With Al frames, you need to find a MiG or TiG welder with specialized equipment and who can put the whole frame in an oven. CF is a whole 'nother level of specialization and equipment again.

halfspeed

You don't see the absurdity in that?

It's one thing to do a minor repair on 4130, it's something else entirely to do a permanent repair on modern thin guage heat treated steel alloys.

Yep. Of course most steel frames are TIG welded these days as well.

Unlike carbon frame building, it's actually not that expensive to do carbon frame repair.

Valencia81

Why does the caad 12 come in tektro brakes?

seymour1910

The 105 model does but none of the others. A pair of 5800 brakes won't set you back very much at all.

dtrain

+1. I replaced the Tektro calipers on my CAAD10 with 5800. About $25-30 net after unloading the stock pair.

RoderWrench

All this hairsplitting, man up and ride what you got.

Hapsmo911

I like a lot of the new steel bikes. Wish they were more accessible.


Anyway, I put a deposit on a new Caad12 then canceled. I was going to get the non disc version. Seems like this bike was built with disc in mnd and the non disc versions are an after thought. I am going to wait till some folks put some miles on them. I may pick up a Caad10 if they dont meet expectations.

seymour1910

I think some of the guy's in the Cult of CAAD thread have already given rider feedback. Unless you meant extensive mileage.....

Hapsmo911

Yeah. Like when the honeymoon is over.........

seymour1910

Got it. Make complete sense to me.

WalksOn2Wheels

What makes you think that?

bassjones

Heck, I'm still riding my CAAD9, the last of the real Cannondales IMHO. It really is a terrific bike, and it's managed quite well during my 160 lb weight loss - I started at over 400 lbs. I had wheels built for it and my fit has changed a couple of times, but the frame is in great shape and rides well. The CF fork helps with the ride quality I'm sure.

rpenmanparker 

No, you were lucky that YOU thought it was repairable. You can find some putz to do a jackleg job on just about anything without any trouble. Does your bike look like new now too. Is the weld as strong as the original tube connections on the bike? What possible similarity is there to your letting some doofus weld on Columbus SL, burn up your bike, and hand it back to you saying, "There, good as new," to a competent structural and cosmetic repair done by a qualified craftsman...on any material? Did he use just the right CrMo rod, TIG setup, and such? Do you think no strength or appearance was compromised in the process or don't care? Or that the folks you are discussing this with mean the same thing as you do when they say "repair"? A little self-awareness here, please!

We're comparing jobs that end in a like-new product done by folks who have a reputation for knowing how.

Lazyass

Welding isn't rocket science.