quanmunist

When a bike is made out of Hi-Ten steel, what does that mean? Hi-Ten=High Tensile? Is that some sort of economical/cheap process of putting together a steel bike?

jsmithepa

Why would anyone advertise *cheap*?

It doesn't mean anything. It's like when they say DIGITAL.

Longfemur

It's the heaviest, cheapest kind of steel. Basically just glorified pipe steel. Utility bikes, 3-speed "racers" and cheap 10-speeds used to be made of it. I rode a 10-speed made of it for a long time because I couldn't afford any better in those days. Perfectly fine for riding, just very heavy. The bike probably weighed 35 lbs (not just because of the heavy frame, but all the other steel on it).

TimJ

Hi-tensile steel is a cheaper form of tubing than chromoly steel. It's not as strong as chromoly so to get the same amount of strength in the bike the tubes must be thicker, meaning a hi-ten bike will be heavier than a chromoly bike.

A hi-ten frame can make a perfectly decent bike, though. I have an old hi-ten schwinn for my fixie and it's a nice ride. Chromoly rides a bit better because the tubes are thinner, and it's also lighter for the same reason, but hi-ten is OK stuff.

quanmunist

you confuse.

Rosso Corsa

He is saying that non chromoly steel needs a name other than 'low end', or 'cheap' steel, so they gave it a cool sounding name.

TimJ

So it's nothing like digital since digital means info comprised of 1s and 0s.

Tabor

digital = composed of 0's and 1's
hi-ten = mild steel

bfromcolo

I am no expert but isn't hi-ten some intermediate between pipe steel like the electro forged Schwinn's and cro-moly? For comparable frame sizes my 1020 Voyager frame is certainly a few pounds lighter than the Continental I had before it, but still a few pounds heavier than the butted cro-moly Trek I used to have.

Regardless hi-ten is not the lightest but still gives a comfortable ride on the commuter I built, and appears to be very durable as it is a 30 year old frame, and a few pounds don't make any difference for my application.

JanMM

Hi-ten isn't the worst kind of crummy tubing in the history of the world.

Bill Kapaun

Hi Ten = High Tensile.
Not clearly defined. It's just higher tensile than a lower grade steel it's compared to. It may be negligibly stronger and be called that.
"Pipe steel" can be a very high grade. High pressure boilers, nuclear reactors etc. use "pipe steel", along with the water pipe going to your house. Another "undefined" term.

When applied to bicycles, it basically means "next to the cheapest" grade.

BCRider

High tensile steel is wonderful stuff compared to cheap tubing like electrical conduit and other non pressure bearing tubing. The high tensile tubing is actually the same steel then use for pressure rated tubing and pipe.

Bill Kapaun

As a former Marine Boilermaker (I completed an apprenticeship in that trade) I'll say you are correct!
Part of the time.
There are a lot of different steels used in high pressure pipe & tubing.
Boiler steam generator tubes tend to be a low carbon steel because they need to be easily bent. Nothing close to "high tensile". High pressure steam piping is a different matter.
There are too many variable for a "one type fits all" scenario. Heat, shock, vibration, fluid/air impingement....

JanMM

So, it seems that perfectly fine bike frames can be made of hi-ten steel. But, those frames could always be improved if made from cromo or similar higher-quality alloy steel.

Bill Kapaun

A stronger material allows them to be made lighter, since the material doesn't have to be as thick to achieve the same strength.

quanmunist

<3 my cro-moly 83 shogun 500 then. woo woo.

BCRider

Having ridden a couple of the old hi-ten bikes I found that they seem to soak up a little of my effort and don't give it back as well as Cr-Mo frames do. Granted this is a pretty darn small set of examples that I'm talking about but out of the three frames that I rode back to back days with Cr-Mo bikes in between this was what I felt. It wasn't a big difference but I was definetly huffing and puffing a little less after a Cr-Mo ride than one with a Hi-Ten bike.