Originally Posted by
Senrab62
Typically chromo has more strength and rigidity than hi-ten, unless you know of a hi-ten that is used that is stronger. I know tensile strength in chromly I superior, even with the thinner guage and butting. I am by no means an expert, do you have literature showing hi-ten to be stronger?
All steel (used in bike frames anyway) has the same material stiffness. Because chromo is stronger you can use thinner tubes and so usually end up with a less stiff frame. You can compensate by going oversize but once the wall is 1/50th the diameter you risk "coke canning", making it not possible in practice to realize the full potential of super-strong alloys like Reynolds 953. .8/.5/.8 with 1" TT is a bit of a sweet spot IMO for ride quality and this can be achieved with any seamless double butted chromo these days. A "hi-ten" frame will be more like 1mm wall, perhaps more, and will probably also be plain-gauge, which would mean the tubes were twice as stiff in the middle for the same diameter.