Originally Posted by mikejo
How about Gunnar frames with OS2 butted tube sets, featuring True Temper OX Platinum air-hardening steel alloys? I believe they used to use 953?
Falanx- what do you think is the best material for a mountain bike frame over the long haul?
Steel. End of.
OX Platinum will have been used in place of 853, not 953. There's a factor of two difference in price of tubeset, if not more.
Originally Posted by Jason222
Would it be possible for a frame to be made without any welds? Just one big tubeset? Like a mold? Would it not be stronger that way?
What, like Trek's OCLV carbon ones?
Or in metals? Only titanium alloys are capable of being superformed by superplastic means to perform jobs such as this, but the tooling costs would be Biblical. Aluminium-lithium alloys can be superplastically formed, but they are too brittle, as far as I am concerned, for bike frames. Plane skins, yes, even parts of the superstructure, but by the time you've rammed your airplane into something, it's too late, so you wouldn't worry about impact toughness
In short? No, not really, unless the frame was laid up in some way.
However! For some time I have been considering the use of ultra-high-strength metallic whisker fibres in a low density alloy matrix, such as perhaps iron whiskers in an Al/Mg matrix. Now that would eb something to see. You're looking at about 30 grand a frame though