Originally Posted by Bonzo Banana

My point certainly isn't that older hi-ten steels are better my point is some of the largest Chinese frame manufacturer's seem to have moved to a high carbon steel and have improved their budget steel frames and are now selling them as 'high carbon steel' and certified steel frames seem to have had a drop in weight. My point is these budget steel frames seem to have improved and are now approaching the quality of the lower end chromoly frames and are more competitive weight wise than they used to be. As this is a section about framebuilding I thought the best place to ask about this although really its more about bike industry trends and improvements.

It's difficult to find an example but here is a rare company selling steel frame mountain bikes in the UK at the budget end of pricing which is selling many similar models with one example being aluminium but the others mainly steel and the weight difference actually seems to favour the steel bikes, i.e. on average they appear lower in weight than the aluminium model. I don't think this would have been true a few years ago, there was normally a weight penalty to steel frames.

MOUNTAIN - Greenwaycycles

The world's largest bicycle manufacturer is now doing some fairly sophisticated low cost hydro-formed steel frames that are weight competitive with aluminium which are clearly designed to match aluminium frames for similar models and applications.

HI-TEN STEEL FRAME archive - Tianjin Fuji-ta Bicycle Co.,Ltd.

Often fashion and industry trends create a perceived quality and desired product in consumers minds that means most would not accept a steel framed mountain bike but there does seem to be some improvement in steel frames and many companies now sell these as high carbon steel frames.