jitteringjr

So why are there no Pros riding steel frames? It's not really a weight issue anymore because you can put together a steel bike that is right at the 15 pound UCI limit. So why no steel?

jbhowat

I think there are still a couple... Primarily it is because the companies that sponsor teams give their riders the top-of-the-line framset. For the larger companies that can sponsor teams, these frames are primarily carbon, with some Al and Mg alloys mixed in.

socalrider

what's given is ridden by the peloton..

ivan_yulaev

Because steel, and titanium, don't sell as well as CF.

ShinyBaldy

A lot of traditionalists will keep making excuses - but the fact of the matter is this...

professionals care about performance. One of the variables that they look into is stiffness, the other is weight savings. Comfort comes later.

Steel doesn't offer an advantage in weight to stiffness performance - it can be made stiffer than composites, but it'll be heavier. It can be made light, but it wouldn't be as stiff. Composites can also be more refined in design - you can't really engineer steel to be more flexly in the vertical axis while being stiff in the horizontal. With composites - the designers can be more selective about that sorta thing...

since the balance between stiffness/comfort, stiffness/weight, reliability/weight is usually hard enough to define and varies with individual's butts - composites make the design process easier because you can control just a bit more of the construction... instead of a relatively homogenious material that you can only affect the diameter, wall thickness and other structural dimensions...

kubla khan

What about the Serotta's the Kodak/Sierra Nevada team rides?

ShinyBaldy

those are usually mix-materials...

ajst2duk

****((((because steel ain't real???))))******
ducks for cover again

Thylacine

The Pro's requirements and circumstances has nothing to do with what you or I require.

berny

If CF was any good they'd make steel out of it. Real men ride steel!

velocipedio

really? is there one in production? who makes it?

MichaelW

Making a 15 lbs steel bike is possible (usually in a smaller size), but is takes a lot more skilled labour than making the same out of carbon or Al. Production frames do not have this level of workmanship.
Top steel makers are mostly small workshops or one-man bands and simply cannot supply a big team with the 100 frames they need for a season of racing.

CommuterRun

Call me Mr. Cynical, but I think a lot of it has to do with marketing and the "Bling" factor. Along the same lines, if unobtanium worked better for the pros, but the manufacturers couldn't get enough of it to mass produce bikes, the sponsored pros wouldn't be racing on it.

jitteringjr

I was looking at wrenchscience.com and did a custom online build with a Ciocc frame with Record stuff and it came out to 15.02 pounds.

For the cobblestone races they ride this time of year, I would think that steel would be a good choice.

galen_52657

The pros ride mostly production frames - or next year's production frame - supplied by the team. Most R & D is in CF. A steel frame as light as a CF frame would be not be stiff enough and would have to be supplied by a specialty frame fabricator and re-badged.

So why bother?

capsicum

Because steel has limits despite having the same basic strength to weight ratio as aluminium and titanium and a very similer modulus of elastisity(stiffness). It's denser so it would need thinner walled tubing for a given tube diameter which would dent easier, a perfect pop can can hold over 100 pounds but one little ding and the walls collapse.
they don't use pig iron for much anymore because steel replaced it, less brittle stronger and more workable.
Steel is a much cheaper matierial per pound than any of the others at 1/4 the price of aluminium
I have two steel bikes btw

sydney

Assuming you can it won't be as stiff as CF or aluminum.

sydney

nonsense....You need to check youngs modulus.

531Aussie

this is just my opinion, but....

I'd say it's mostly marketing and "show biz", but I'd figure flex would have something to do with it.


These were the last steel bikes ridden in the Euro pro peloton (only in some of the classics), and I think Scapin sponsored Team Saturn a couple of years ago


https://www.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?...GW/bike_ch1825

jitteringjr

I wanted the Super Prodidy, but Cervelo discontinued it and the LBS didn't have my size.

531Aussie

I've got one and I love it, but my aluminium bikes are a definitely a bit stiffer

531Aussie

Don't get me started

he was riding a:

bike..........Windsor-Colnago (ITA)
Builder.......Ernesto Colnago (ITA)
weight.......5.75 kilos
design.......diamond pista
material.....Reynolds and Columbus PL steel tubing
wheels.......Nisi rims (200 grams) 28/32-spoke
Tyres.........Clement #0 tubulars (90/200 grams)




https://www.bikecult.com/bikecultbook...cordsHour.html

Laggard

Stupid ancient technology. The cheapest Walmart bike now is better than that.

jitteringjr

Most of the fastest times on that link are using steel with only a few CF frames and I am not talking about the 1972 times.

531Aussie

Yeah, the only non-steel bikes were ridden by Indurain and Boardman, but then Boardman came back after the UCI tightened the rules and broke Eddie's old record by 10 meters using Columbus Foco steel.