Originally Posted by
cyccommute
You are the one who brought up these arguments.
No, I mentioned it as an indication of the relative practicality of repairing steel. Very few places seem to repair AL bicycles. Many repair steel. A few repair Ti.
Originally Posted by
cyccommute
I am talking about field repairs that are just enough to get you to a large town.
Which is what everybody is talking about. It's
obvious that that is what people are talking about because
it makes no sense to spend lots of money/time to repair a cheap frame (like the LHT).
Originally Posted by
cyccommute
We really aren't that far apart in our views. If I were traveling in outer Mongolia, I'd take a steel bike because aluminum might not have gotten there yet. But aluminum and welding equipment is nearly as ubiquitous as steel welding equipment in most of the rest of the world. There are just too many cars that have aluminum parts to be otherwise. Aluminum bike frames are probably easier to weld given their thickness.
I'm not sure if
this is true. I think also that AL is a bit more fussy to repair. It's also possible that any place that can repair AL is also easy to ship to.