zrblue

As above really.

Went on my first decent length cycle today since acquiring an old Tensor Lazer Custom steel frame. I cycled with a friend who has a Carrera road bike, not sure of the model, but its an alloy frame. We traveled a decently hilly route around Loch Leven in Scotland for anyone who knows the area - roughly 31 miles. I was having a hard time keeping up with him on my bike even though im a decent amount more active a fitter than my friend...

So how much of a weight difference is there in the steel frames compared with alloy and carbon?

Thanks

ninja2

around 1 lb for the same class frame (high, mid, low end etc)

zrblue

ah, i thought it would have been a fair bit more

johnny99

I assume when he said "same class" he meant approximately the same price. I think steel vs. carbon might be a little more than 1 pound; maybe 5 pounds vs. 3 pounds for the frame (no fork). If you compare a steel frame + steel fork vs. carbon frame + carbon fork, then there will be a little more weight difference. Aluminum will be about half way between carbon and steel, weight wise.

Of course, when you compare complete bikes, then the weight of the components is a lot more than the weight of the frame. That is especially true when comparing older components to newer ones. 30 years ago, mid-range road bikes were around 25-30 pounds. Today, mid-range road bikes are 10 pounds lighter, with most of the weight difference being in the components (including the fork).

The weight of the rider matters a lot, too.

ninja2

yes, should have clarified, no fork etc, only frame. there are Al frames that cost close to cf frames and weight almost the same (1.2kg vs 1kg), high end Reynolds 953 steel frame is about 1lb heavier than a lot of high end cf frames (1.5kg)....what this means to you is of course your business...
did not mean the same price, this is highly relative to when and where you buy it, particularly having in mind drop in high end cf frame prices comparing to steel these days... I'm no expert, but it seems the best value for the $$$ is a CF frame today ...
price non-withstanding, only serious racers (I certainly am not one) can tell what this 1lb difference mean to them, if anything...Math says not much, but let's not get there...

sac02

It's not the bike

acorn_user

Some Carreras in Britain are Halfords own brand bikes. They aren't really that light. Either the frame or the bike...

ninja2

1+++ It's not the bike
how true.....

zrblue

(You forget to highlight the part where i say "since acquiring my tensor lazer custom", it wasn't my first decent ride EVER, but my first decent ride on this bike.

In what your saying really, like for like (same components, rider, only difference being the weight of the frames) , a steel frame VS an alloy one will have no performance differences? Clearly not.

Dubbayoo

My custom steel Reynolds 731OS weighed about 4 lbs minus fork; my carbon frame about half that. The fork was probably another 10-11oz.

Built up my steel bike was 20.5 lbs; my carbon is 15.5'ish.

rruff

Back in the day when Columbus SL was king a nice road frame weighed ~4.5 lbs. Now the good CF frames are in the 2.0 lb range and even less.

Herbie53

-2 > you should definitely go out and spend as much as you can possibly afford and then double it in an effort to obtain the absolute lightest unobtainuim superbike you can find.

it does not matter whether you ride 1 mile a month or 1000. Lighter bikes are practically self propelled.



---- this is sarcasm, +1 it's not the bike

AEO

steel frames are not that heavy... steel forks are a boat anchor compared to carbon forks.

big john

Decent steel frames are about 4 pounds, I hear Willier had some that were 3 pounds.

grolby

This really depends. You won't pay all that much for a 1200 g aluminum frame - maybe $1k. I paid $500 for mine, though that was NOS, of course. A sub 1 kg carbon frame will be considerably more expensive. Hell, a Cervelo S2 is probably around 1100-1200 g. How much does that cost compared to our $1k benchmark for a 1200 g aluminum frame? Aluminum is extremely hard to beat on bang-for-buck. You just can't get a steel frame that light, not safely anyway, and the ones that come close tend to be extremely expensive. A "light" steel frame would probably be pushing 2 kg. Steel is really great for lots of applications, but for lightweight performance, especially at a reasonable cost, it is seriously out of its depth.

Of course, CF has selling points other than light weight, and that's part of how frame manufacturers want to convince us to drop the extra cash a frame that isn't THAT much lighter than what you can do with aluminum. It was harder to do this when my frame was still being produced, which is why there were still a lot of aluminum bikes at the high end in the early 2000's. But the tipping point was reached at some point, and aluminum suddenly became very difficult to sell at the high end, in spite of the price advantage. That's okay; carbon does have real advantages, and its properties add another dimension to frame design. It is too bad that finding a high-quality aluminum frame is so much harder these days, but it's often possible for the enthusiast to benefit from local or online sales of used or NOS aluminum frames.

caterham

modern upper-end carbon road frames will generally weigh in the 900g-1100g range
for comparison, approx. frame weights of my own (admittedly small) bikes

1980 columbus sl steel-1900g

1986 vitus 979 lugged aluminum -1700g

2001 columbus ultrafoco steel-1500g

2004 columbus airplane aluminum/carbon-1350g

2001 columbus xlr8r aluminum(scandium)/carbon- 1200g

ninja2

what a great way to close the post....