Originally Posted by Trogon
I think that all too often people find themselves on a new frame and are impressed with its performance and the first thing they do is attribute it to some nuance of the materials.
I'd be willing to bet my recently cracked Pneumo that there are scandium doped frames that ride like wonders and others that ride like pigs. Same statement would be true of every other material used in frame building. One thing I've noticed - a well built bicycle rides well regardless of material. For an interesting blind study of this, search the web for rider reviews of the Pegoretti Fina Estampa. Everyone loves theirs, most liken it to a fine steel bicycle which is odd for an aluminum rig. Most attribute this miracle to the presence of scandium in the SC61.10 tubeset. Problem is, that tubeset doesn't contain scandium. But that minor fact has yet to dissuade anyone from trumpeting its properties and their effect on that bike.
You guys are lucky, you've found a frame that works very well for your riding style. It's probably not the teeny bit of scandium in the aluminum however, it's probably that you've found two nice frames.
Trogon's insight is dead on. I've been asked for weeks for feedback on my Santana and I've been very hesitant about providing details and opinion. There is certainly a "honeymoon" phase in any new bike and I wanted to get past that and onto to truly figuring out the qualities and nuances and attrributing them to the appropriate places.
I've found that frame, wheels and tires are the 3 items I can decipher through the easiest. I've already posted a thread about the ride differences between 2 sets of wheels on this frame given the same set of tires. That was a controlled and thought out experiment for which I took a lot of time to make sure my opinion was truly about the wheels and nothing else.
I'm doing the same for the Stylus and I'm not done assessing it yet. I keep making changes to try to dial it in, and each time I do, it renders a different feeling - most of which are not based on the frame and its characteristics. I love this part of the process and it can easily take months before I'll honestly be able to identify the specifics of the frame and communicate them in a way that has validity. I can say this, from an emotional seat-of-the-pants perspective, it's faster and more comfortable than I anticipated and I'm loving every second I'm on it.
Regarding the Pegoretti Fina Estampa - I was the guy who sought out a Scandium frame based solely on test riding a friend's Fina. I don't know how I was led to believe it was a Scandium frame and since I knew I'd never purchase the Peg, I never bothered to dig deeper. I guess I'll chalk another one up to experience, or lack thereof, and consider myself very lucky that I'm as happy with the outcome as I am.
55/Rad