Despite the widespread belief that material is all that matters, its really only a minor factor in how a bike rides. As a material, steel is actually both stronger and stiffer than aluminum. However, some aluminum frames tend to give a jarring ride because of the large diameter tubing used to compensate for the lesser stiffness of aluminum. But that does not mean that all ALU frames are stiffer than all steel frames. OUt of all my bikes, the stiffest (EAI Bareknuckle) and unstiffest (Surly Long Haul Trucker) of my bikes are both made of steel. My aluminum bikes are both in the middle somewhere in terms of stiffness. A frame designer can achieve a wide range of ride characteristics with either material by altering the geometry, tube thickness, tube diameter, etc.


Both of those frames are nice frames and are probably going to be stiffer and quicker handling than your average road bike. I would bet that they look more different than how they ride.