ehenz,
I agree that there is a difference which is what I've been saying all along..
A bigger smile on your face is purely subjective and largely dependant on what the riders likes/wants are.
Hayneda,
In theory metal springs are perfect and return to their point of origin with no permanent deformation.
However a Bike frame is designed with a certain amount of pre stressing which reduces the amount of additional stress you can apply to the frame before exceeding the elastic limit. Even a vlaue slightly over the elasticlimit will result in a small amount of creep and eventually permanent deformation of failure. Thats why frames can fail under faigue testing.
Any frame that has been ridden hard for a number of yrs will eventually fail. some tubes simply become soft or more flexible ie looses it's springyness (even car coil soprings have a finite life but are over designed to keep stress within limits).
Bike frames are designed a lot closer to the materials limits, particularly frames manufactured from tubesets such as Reynolds 753, to reduce their weight. The steel frames from the late 80's were at the limit of what was technically possible at that time and as you know, anything pushing the limits is more prone to failure than something operating well within it's limits.
All I have been trying to say (unsuccessfully it seems) is that modern steel frames are better than the old frames form the 80's due to improvements in design ie construction technique, detailing, more in depth analysis of the stresses in the frame and where, tailoring of the material to suit the application, tailoring the shape of the tube to enhance it's moment of inertia at a specific point of a deflection to limit that deflection.
The difference between those two stel frames ie one from 1989 and one from 2003 will be very apparent the moemtn you start turning the pedals.
Whether or not the rider cares is totatlly irrelevant.
Also I did not say that riding an old bike precludes people from enjoying the sport.
The question was;
I got to wandering, how much does a frame really matter to the overall bike experience? I'm wondering this cause it seems like my frame is the weakest link of all my components (it was the cheapest at least)
The frame matters to the overall biking experience because without it you don't have a bike, just a collection of parts. The frame is one aspect of getting your power from your legs to the road. So a heavy flexy frame will be detrimental to your performance even if you like the way it feels. You could be performing better on something that does'nt feel as good but is quicker on climbs and under acceleration.
basically I'm wondering if there would be a huge difference in ride quality going from an 80's Bianchi steel frame to say a more modern tig welded steel Bianchi frame?
Yes there will be a huge difference. The more modern bike will be lighter and stiffer and possibly as compliant, all factors which will contribute to whether you like the bike or not.
The older frame should NOT STOP ANYONE RIDING. enjoyment of the sport should not be determined by the equipment.
It will prevent them maximising their performance.
So there you have it. No older frames don't stop you riding, but you will be slower under performance conditions than you could be on a more modern rig.