the beef

I have a Bianchi San Lorenzo made of scandium (a type of aluminum, I think). It's lighter than a lot of carbon frames out there - my 53 cm weighs a hair over 1000g. Me gusta.

DigitalRJH

Some companies, such as Trek, use alloy frames by mixing AL with another metal, such as Zirconium in Trek's case. I went from a steel frame to an AL frame, with a carbon fork and stays, and found the AL frame to be more comfortable. I was surprised because the frame was much stiffer than the steel frame I had been previously riding, but road chatter was not an issue.

cat0020

Hopefully right after a dent occurs and before the frame fails.

Complient meaning softer? of corse, aluminum has less density than steel or titanium; but complient in bike frame application? no so.

Raw tubing of steel drawn for bicycle frame manufacturing are more expensive than aluminum tubing. Fabrication of a welded steel frame require more prescision in the tube cutting than Aluminum frames, which use gobs of welding material to cover up poor tube cutting prior to welding.
Welding aluminum frame require less heat than steel frames, less energy is required for manufacturing, more likely to damage the tubing with poor welding techniques, grinding down the welding material and thick layer of paint to make the welded joints seem "smooth".

Old School

I could be wrong, but I think they are made from aluminum.

lunacycle

I don't know if that is true. When you consider the energy that goes into mining the aluminum alloys, the manufacturing of the alloy, the manipulation of the tube shapes and thicknesses, as well as the heat-treating / aging processes that need to occur, then I would think that the energy usage would be quite a bit higher for the aluminum frame.

LIUser22

end of discussion.

This bike handles, is quite light 18.3lbs i think, it's stiff and it's the best bang for the buck IMO

Pasqually

I have an Alloy bmx race bike. Alloy hardtail mountain bike. A custom Zonal/airplane orbea and a colnago dream. Had many steel frames (still do) and a c-40.

I had the c-50 but went for the dream instead.

I think most people that started riding in the last 5 - 10 years would have started on a low level cheap alloy bike and it would have sucked. Good alloy is like any other good frame material.

My freiend has broken 2 c-50's while I have had my dream.

jrn

I take it you mean aluminum alloy?

Agree with the CAAD9 for best value.

dwood

Sorry CAT0020:

Aluminum is more flexible than steel. And aluminum requires MORE heat to weld than steel [assuming the TIG process in both cases]. 40 years experience says so.

DON

Pasqually

yes, I should have said that. Used to calling them steel, carbon, alloy and Ti.

ElJamoquio

...And you need much more energy to make the aluminum, too. But you can't educate everyone.

uberclkgtr

Pegoretti makes excellent aluminum frames. I'd be interested in trying one back-to-back with a CAAD9.

gfrance

All true.

I was recently in the market for a new frame and went about the search materially agnostic: I looked at all materials without a bias toward any. I almost got an aluminum, but wound up getting carbon. Had my eye on a a few steel. One ti came around but price was more than budget allowed. Good, is good.

MrCrassic 

Well, from what I know aluminum is by composition weaker than any other heavily used bicycle material (carbon, titanium, steel), but is also the most abundantly found material and has huge areas for improvement. It can also be designed to be rather light and is usually durable enough for long-time bike riding.

I should also mention that like titanium and steel, slighter failures (such as cracks, markings, etc) take much longer to cause total frame failure than carbon frames, but most bikers already know this.

I've only ridden on aluminum, so I cannot attest to the stiffness or complacency of any other metal. On my frame, the ride is pretty comfortable and it is good at absorbing the shock produced from crap New York City roads. However, I have heard that carbon or titanium would be better at this.

There's a (non-engineer's) response.

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Juklano

Are there any companies known only for aluminum frames? A simple plain aluminum frame, kinda like Litespeed but Aluminum instead of Ti. I could only find a plain KHS.

pdedes

i've a new aluminum framed bike. i'm not racing anymore, but i'll expect about 5 good seasons before i unload it.

Peter

soulbike

Frame material being the determining factor of stiffness and comfort is indeed flawed as pointed out. You can make a frame out of any material and make it stiff or comfortable. However, saying that material choice does not determine stiffness and comfort of a frame is also flawed.

Different frame material determine different ways of designing a frame. This is due to the inherent properties of the material. Unfortunately everyone learned this the hard way. Great examples are Vitus noodle alloy lugged frames, Look heavy ass lugged carbon frames, cannondale R2.8 pain in the ass frames etc etc..

Alloy frames are designed with stiffness in mind, because aluminium has a lower fatigue life than steel or titanium. Flex it too many times and it will start to crack/ fail. Aluminium can also be drawn to fairly thin tubes, thus allowing for bigger diameter and still acceptably light tubes. Steel on the other hand can't be drawn thin enough to allow it to have a big diameter AND be light. So, material choice does have an impact on frame characteristics. Just not directly, as you can design a thick tubed small diameter alloy frame and it will most likely ride just like a steel frame.

Different aluminium alloys also 'dictate' ride characteristics of frames. 6061 frames would ride more compliant than 7005 frames if they were indeed designed to be as light/ stiff as they could go. This is because you can draw a 7005 tube thinner than a 6061 tube in which case you would try to make a 7005 stiffer and lighter than a 6061 frame. This will result in a frame which was harsher sounding as the tubes are thinner and thus sounded more hollow. The frame would also be stiffer in most directions, although measuring comfort/ vertical stiffness is still very subjective as the difference in vertical movement is almost negligible.

I am not an engineer by training so my statements above may not be written in the most scientifically accurate manner but hope I get my point across without too much error.

Cannondale and Principia are brands that come to mind when talking about companies that specialised in aluminium frames. These companies came to fore during the rise of aluminium as an acceptable frame material for bicycles. However market forces have definitely changed that. Still I do believe that there is a place and future for aluminium as a frame material. If designed and built properly, aluminium can be made into a fairly light, stiff, comfortable and cheap frame.

EatMyA**

buy one.

ridethecliche

Thanks for that write up!
Interesting stuff. Materials science is sooo cool!!!

Edit: Directed to bikesoul.

Grumpy McTrumpy

I was going to say Klein...

OMG they killed Klein...

you *******s.

mr handy

I have a felt f80. Not what I would call a high ind AL. frame, but not a bad frame either.

The thing I have noticed is that people tend to say that AL. tends to have a rough ride so therefore it must be a stiff frame. I find this to be false. (or at least that's how they generally come across to me)

As a stock bike there was quite a bit of road buzz, but by replacing the fork for one with full carbon steerer (and possibly more flex) and a brooks swallow with ti rails, the bike has smoothed out considerably. (I replaced the wheels and noticed no difference in ride quality).... the frame leans toward the rough ride side, but not as rough as the cdale r500 I test rode.

In spite of the roughness of the ride I can still flex the BB (I'm 150lb and 5'9") which can cause rubbing when powering up steep hills.

grolby

Aluminum is the bees' knees. It's been said a million times already, but it's all about the geometry and frame design. What's nice about Al is that you can get a very nice frame for a lot less money than CF. Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer full aluminum frames out there. Someone out there realized that CF sells, so they started making aluminum bikes with CF stays and saying that they were "better" than just aluminum .

My road bike is a Specialized S-Works E5, full double-butted aluminum with a carbon fork. It's about a 1200 gram frame, so it's pretty light. It's a top-end frame - like the Cervelo SLT/S1, it was being raced by pros not too many years ago. The designers apparently weren't listening to the folks saying that aluminum rides harshly, because it's really pretty smooth - it rides at least as well as my old steel tank, if not better. It's a road bike, of course, not a hammock, so you definitely feel the bumps, but it's not bone-rattling either. Also, it's stiff and looks sweet! Aluminum can be used to make great bikes, it's really a very versatile frame material.

SushiJoe

RIP Klein

garysol1 

My E5 is is an awesome riding bike. Has a much more solid feel over bumps then my Carbon bike. Truth is I prefer almost everything about my E5 over my Tarmac. Ride quality is comparable but it just feels tighter and the frame cost 75% less cash. On top of that the big tube standard geometry frame just looks tits to me. Click on the bottom left picture for a larger view.

cuattop

I have ridden a couple of AL bikes and couldn't wait to get back on titanium (Lynskey).