Originally Posted by
andre nickatina
very nice explanation. i finally understand the whole steel vs. aluminum thing concisely.
but one thing - what about the aluminum road bikes from the 80's with tubing diameters the same as standard steel? i still see some of those being ridden.
I've been told aluminum frames has a limited lifespan of about 7 years of use. Maybe after those first frames were introduced, and they started cracking, that engineers came up with bigger tube frame designs.