Originally Posted by RobbieTunes

Only from Madison would come such a well-written attempt to pass off style as intelligence. By intelligence, I refer to it as a commodity, such as pork, or perhaps hogwash, or a silk purse from the cliched pig's ear. Perhaps it is an attempt to compensate for some unknown (but maybe painfully obvious) shortcoming, or even to belittle the connection between steel and it's earthy origins of sweat and toil.

Rather than belittle the choices of the unwashed masses for whom you deign to speak, perhaps the writer would prefer to encounter the evidence that always counts, the actual reality that is apparent: steel is often the right bike for the application, and often the best choice. Beauty and function and form and taste always apply when it's a human decision, as does value. As long as steel is showing up at triathlons, criteriums, centuries, and daily rides, the reality is that it is the best choice for a certain percentage of the population, and all your rumination can't change that fact.

"Everything a handcrafted high end steel frame can do an engineered titanium bike can do better. Everything..." Tell me, then, what is the difference between an engineered steel frame and a handcrafted high end titanium frame? I reversed the modifiers on purpose, to illustrate the point in lieu of using a crayon. Apples to apples, there, buckaroo, and don't get caught up in the politician's game of comparing your apples to their mangos, to mangle a phrase and obfuscate the issue...(i.e. "Health Care" reform vs. "how to pay for getting un-sick" reform).

Steel is real, not cliche. It's strong, and old, reliable, predictable, and can take many forms, from a 50-lb newspaper behemoth to a dainty, skittish Italian sprite. It can be dirt cheap and approach the performance of the same material (or different) costing exponentially more. For you Marines, that's a lot more.

Titanium is fine, durable, light, and all the things that steel can be, and some things it's not, except cheap. I can build 3-4 great steel bikes for the price of the great titanium bike that I built. Are they 1/3 to 1/4 the quality, ride, and precision of the titanium bike? Yes, easily. I'm not a high thinker like the above authority, but in my low-rent, day to day world of steel bikes, iron men, women with hips, and real concerns, I'd say my steel bikes are 8's if my titanium bike was a 10.

If you're being tongue in cheek, it's hilarious. If not, my recommendation is to drink more, and possibly seek an encounter with a significant other who's not so impressed with alleged intellectualism.