Originally Posted by
timtak
Maybe one day we will realise that aluminium bikes were all a big mistake!?
https://www.exploratorium.edu/cycling/frames2.html
"Aluminum is an interesting material. You can't really let it flex, because the more it gets to bend the quicker it reaches the end of its life. That's why you see a lot of aluminum frames today that have very large diameter tubing. That's to limit the flexing that happens as you ride the bike."
This article claims to be scientific, comes to the same conclusion as us (stiff is not good) but does not provide hard data.
https://janheine.wordpress.com/2011/...ame-stiffness/
Some steel flexes more than others (see the above article). I haven't ridden steel since I was a kid but I would like to try a Reynolds tubing bike now. Perhaps, since like you say it lasts a long time, it would be my last bike.
Does your bike use "chromoly" tubing with varying thickness? There are steel bikes made with "drainpipes" and there are flexy ones made with Reynolds and Columbus tubing.
I read that steel can be more flexible than carbon
Why You Should be Riding Steel and not Carbon | Road Bike News, Reviews, and Photos | Page 3
It seems to me that the difference between my carbon and aluminium frames is difficult to miss but that was especially the case when using a long 27.2mm carbon seat post (with shim as need be). The OPs bike already has a carbon front fork.
I don't think aluminum bikes are a mistake, you can make them flexible as well. The Vitus frames of the 80's were all aluminum and famously flexy.
You can modulate stiffness with material and/or tubing size/shape. You could design a carbon fiber bike to emulate any steel frame if you wanted. You could make a large diameter steel tubed bike very stiff. Tubing manufacturers are now making sets in different diameters to allow the frame builder to do just that. you see aluminum and carbon fiber bikes with frames designed to be laterally stiff, but vertically more compliant.
The question is "how much flex"? If you're 6'7" and 400 lbs, a very stiff oversized aluminum frame may be just the ticket, whereas the 5'4" 145 lb rider might think it to ride like an ox cart.
And I'm still looking for someone to rig up a frame with a lot of sensors to prove/disprove the planing theory.