Originally Posted by jk610
Actually I guess this is open to anyone really. Ive grown fond of the IRO Jamie Roy recently and looking to prehaps order one. As soon as I mentioned this to a couple friends of mine all I heard was "aluminum frame...nah man theyre a harsh ride...", etc... I did some searching on the forums but couldnt find enough good information to hopefully base a deicision on. So my question is, is the ride on an aluminum frame really THAT bad? Im riding a converted 80s KHS thats about 3 sizes too small for me and I have bad knees so I cant imagine a brand new IRO, sized correctly, is going to be in comparision at all. Should I go steel and never look back? All opinions welcome!
Sheldon Brown's website specifically says that an aluminum frame is not harsh in itself but depends on many factors.
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/frame-materials.html
One of the factors is frame size. A tall person who needs a large frame size might want to consider steel. A person of average height or a short person can easily have good results with aluminum or steel. If someone does ride an aluminum frame bicycle a cro-moly fork is of benefit.