Originally Posted by
jhota
firstly, just because you've done it doesn't mean it should be done. aluminium just isn't as flexible or tolerant of stress as steel. fact of life, sorry.
secondly, there is a large difference in quality of construction and materials between the Nashbar X frame and a Salsa Las Cruces. the Salsa's MSRP is what, five times that of the Nashbar? and i don't think that's all in the name and sweet paintjob.
finally, it's not that hard to replace or just put spacers on the axle to change the width. so why espouse doing something the incorrect (and possibly harmful) way, when the correct way is pretty darn simple?
Then why did Ibis, and now Castellano, make soft-tail mountain bikes out of alu? With 1.5" of travel? I know of 4 guys that ride 'em and there hasn't been a broken or cracked frame in 5 years. KHS made alu soft-tail cross bike for a while.
Less than 3mm per side won't hurt the Nashbar frame, period. There's more deflection at the BB than that...!
It's not beer can thin. If anything, it's likely thicker tubing and drops than my scandium Salsa.