Originally Posted by
well biked
If you've ever seen a name brand suspension fork (Rockshox, Fox, Manitou, White Bros, X-Fusion) with a 1 1/8" steerer tube, the chances are very, very good that you've seen a fork with an aluminum steerer tube in the flesh.
Actually, the RockShox forks (and others) I've seen had steel steerers, (many were stainless steel). But as I said, that was a while back. These days I see mainly road bikes, either classic steel bikes, or higher end bikes with full carbon forks (inc. steerer).
Once we moved beyond the 1" restriction, it opened up plenty of opportunities for all sorts of materials which were inadequately strong within the 1" limit. Stuff changes every day, and no material is magically better or worse, they're just used differently.