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Old 01-01-22, 10:06 PM
  #30  
rekmeyata
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Bikes: 2020 Masi Giramondo 700c; 2013 Lynskey Peloton; 1992 Giant Rincon; 1989 Dawes needs parts; 1985 Trek 660; 1985 Fuji Club; 1984 Schwinn Voyager; 1984 Miyata 612; 1977 Raleigh Competition GS

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I'm not sure what I can add to this conversation, but I owned, and have owned steel, scandium, and titanium, I've have ridden quite a few different brands and models of carbon fiber. What I observed is that scandium and AL is not only buzzy but larger cracks and holes in the road bangs through the bike, all that buzz and banging wore me out. CF does eliminate the buzz to some degree better than AL or steel, but what most people don't talk about is when a CF bike hits a crack or hole in the road it bangs into the frame much like AL does. Steel mutes the cracks and holes really well, it does have a buzz but more like in between that of AL and CF in my experiences. A TI bike on the other hand mutes the buzz and the banging better than any other material I've rode on, some of that buzz muting could be from the use of CF forks found on all TI bikes.

My experience compares Ti bikes like riding in a full-size luxury car vs other frame material, steel is more like a medium sport luxury car, CF is like a sport touring car, and AL is like a sports car. If that makes any sense! LOL!! I'm trying to explain the differences and that's the best I could come up with.

Some say TI bikes are flexy, but that has a lot to with the geometry of the bike.

TI has the highest strength to weight ratio of any metal. TI can survive harder impacts than CF can without cracking, because of TI's nature in the long run it's cheaper to own a TI bike. The weight difference between titanium and carbon fiber frames is pretty insignificant in the mid-price levels, but get into the higher price ranges and there can be a 1 1/2 or so pound difference with CF being the lightest.

TI bikes are the trickiest material to work on, one error in the welding process could lead to a frame cracking at the weld, but when done right TI (and steel) will outlast all other materials to date; however, CF also has a tendency to fail more often at the bonds. TI hasn't been around as long as steel has, so while we have 100 year plus bikes still around using old gas pipe even, not modern more resilient steel used today, and some of the old gas pipe bikes are still around. The biggest failure point in steel is not fatigue, but rust, TI does not suffer from fatigue just like steel, but it doesn't rust or corrode like steel or AL. CF fatigue is controversial, some say it does and others say it doesn't, we do not have a long track record to be sure, but we do know that when it fails it's catastrophic and sudden unlike steel or TI and even AL; there are also those that say CF is a 6-to-10-year frame, we do know CF is brittle. A bad thing about CF that doesn't affect other materials is the over tightening of a component during installation which can lead to catastrophic failure. Another strange thing, that bothered me about CF, is that I am able to take my thumb and index finger, place it in the middle of any frame tube and make it bend inward, that turned me off.

The following is some videos concerning various materials, they are interesting to see.








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