What is "Alloy"
 

When companies describe a bike part as 'alloy" are they talking steel? Aluminum? Something else altogether?

Examples:
Specialized says fork is "alloy" --> http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/...port%2FFitness

Giant says steerer is "alloy" --> http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-us/...fy/7307/44047/

Used like that they mean an aluminum alloy.
Alloy is literally just a general term for mixtures of metals with other metals(and non metals like carbon)
Steel is iron alloyed with carbon (and other things- many other things)
Pure aluminum was not too useful until it was alloyed with copper-and many other things.

they just mean aluminum alloy, which is lighter than steel parts (and yes, steel is an iron alloy)

Brass is also an alloy, but not to the bicycle vendors.

One of my pet agrivations.

As soon as I can get the rest of the world to use the word "alloy" correctly I'm going to start educating people about the word "fume".

Aluminium on its own doesn't have many useful properties, so it's almost always used with other alloying metals in there. Copper or zinc are commonly the major secondary metal, with several others used to add different properties. Technically any metallic material containing more than one element is an alloy, there being any number of steel materials. 'Cromoly' as it's often called contains significant quantities of chromium and molybdenum as alloying elements, besides ordinary carbon steel.

As an engineer, I seem to be able to spot many misused terms (engineer being one- many people think it's the bloke who comes to fix your boiler) that sadly seem to be here to stay.

But sometimes they will describe one component as aluminum and another as alloy when describing the same bike. For example, they may say a bike has 6061 aluminum handlebars and alloy seatpost. Is "alloy" bike maker code for cheap aluminum?

All aluminum in bikes is an alloy.

Using different words for the same thing is a marketing trick. The more "buzzwords" they can use, the more impressive it will sound, even if it's all different ways to describe the same thing.

That's right. Anyone with an education knows that an engineer is a person who drives a train.

Just about every metal used on a bike is an alloy. But the most commonly used alloys on modern bikes are 6061 and 7005 aluminum.

Steel is an Iron alloy. there are many, industry gives them a number
steel 4130 , is a chrome moly alloy steel , 1010 is a mild steel Iron with carbon.

Aluminum 7075 is a specific alloy as is 7005, the 7xxx indicates it includes Zinc.
& Mg-Cr-Cu
in varying amounts identified by the additional numbers
6xxx includes Si-Mg-Cu



;) Like pancake batter is a wheat alloy ..

well at the very least that's the coolest kind of engineer, right up until you get the black lung.

I"ve been wondering about this myself for a while. Is there a graph or matrix anywhere that details the different types of metals/alloys that go into bikes and rates their quality and what they're typically used for?

Thanks!

not bike specific, but something else :http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalo...s/aluminfo.php

a reference book for Machinists :
http://new.industrialpress.com/node/...FQE2gwod0VAavw

Nice!

Engineers:rolleyes:

An alloy is a (largely) metallic solid mixture. It may be a simple mixture, i.e. heterogeneous, or it can be a solution, i.e. homogeneous. I say 'largely' metallic because an alloy can also contain nonmetallic material. Carbon steel is a prime example. Carbon is not, in any way, shape or form 'metallic'. It is a nonmetal. Iron may be alloyed with phosphorus as may tin to make phosphor bronze.

Then there are the metalloids which are elements that are not quite metals but not quite nonmetallic. Aluminum is sort of a metalloid but silicon, boron, germanium, arsenic, antimony, tellurium and polonium are true metalloids.

I call dibs on clear/colorless, balance/scale, organic (chemical)/organic (food) and, of course, 'chemicals' in our food*:twitchy:

*Hint: It's all chemicals.

Without looking it up, I can come up with two definitions: that nasty stuff a poorly working car or truck puts out the exhaust, or to get angry.

Flat panel vs flat screen used to bug me, but there aren't that many tube TVs/monitors out there anymore to matter.

Chemists:rolleyes:

A physicist, biologist and a chemist were going to the ocean for the first time.

The physicist saw the ocean and was fascinated by the waves. He said he wanted to do some research on the fluid dynamics of the waves and walked into the ocean. Obviously he was drowned and never returned.

The biologist said he wanted to do research on the flora and fauna inside the ocean and walked inside the ocean. He too, never returned.

The chemist waited for a long time and afterwards, wrote the observation, "The physicist and the biologist are soluble in ocean water".

Technically, a fume is a bi-product of melting metal. It may look like smoke, but it's actually composed of very tiny solid particles of metal.

Like the word "alloy", the word "fume" has evolved through common usage and has become less precise.

Good one! Never heard that one before...

=8-)

Cool! I never knew that. You've successfully educated at least one person :)

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=204629

So those aren't toxic fumes coming off when I evaporate the acetonitrile I'm using as a solvent to separate my proteins on an HPLC? What do you call the evaporated gases? Just toxic gas (I thought that was what comes out of my butt periodically)?

English is a living language. It's also a rotarded language.

Look at these words:

1. Soluable versus Insolubale
2. Sincere versus Insincere
3. Consolable versus Inconsolable
4. Flammable versus Inflammable

That last one has always bothered me!

Yes, exactly. If the aluminum alloy being used is known, they always state it because it makes it sound better to have "6061" or "7075" instead of just "aluminum pot metal". For the cases where they really are just using aluminum pot metal, they call it "alloy".