Originally Posted by
Jarrett2
Downsides... let's see. It's slightly heavier than aluminum or carbon fiber these days. It can rust if left outside, but lots of frames are coming with ED coating these days negating that. Harder to find is definitely a downside. Those are about the only ones I can think of.
The OP can't afford high-end exotic steel alloys, so the disadvantages of a 4130/chromly steel frame are:
- It weighs more than an aluminum or carbon frame
- It's more flexible than an aluminum or steel frame
- It can rust from the inside out unless stored in a climate-controlled environment (ex: not a garage) or treated with a rust preventative (ex: Weigle's Frame Saver), which
most manufacturers and shops leave to the purchaser
- They can be difficult to find (since the majority of the bike industry has abandoned this material)
- They're over-priced given the cost of the materials and the ease of manufacture
Here are a couple of pics about the weight thing:
This is a cutting edge, latest and greatest, $5600, size
56 Specialized Roubaix that has a max weight limit of 240 lbs and will likely be an outdated design in a couple of years. This is the type of road bike a dealer will put a 250 lb rider on if they walked into their store:
This is my
considerably less expensive, size
58 steel bike with a
heavier groupset on it:
These photos are a
terrific example of your lack of objectivity when it comes to steel bikes! Just so everyone is clear, this "steel" bike is similar in weight to the carbon bike because:
- It doesn't have pedals installed (250-350g advantage)
- Its SRAM Rival components are lighter than the Ultegra Di2 components on the Roubaix (200-700g advantage, depending on whose scale you trust)
- It's using rim brakes rather than hydraulic disc brakes (200-400g advantage)
- It's using a high-end, light-weight
carbon fiber fork (500-1000g advantage over a steel fork)
Do an apples-to-apples comparison without a fork swap and the "steel" bike ends up with a 1-2 pound weight advantage due to component selection. Most steel bikes the OP could afford will also include a steel fork which means gaining another 1-2 pounds of weight (2-4 total).