therunt

Lately I've been watching a ton of bike restoration videos and have fallen in love with the look of vintage road bikes. Admittedly, I have very little knowlege about the tensile strength of various materials, so I'm not sure how much weight a steel frame can withstand.

My current road bike is a 2012 Specialized Allez, and the aluminum frame holds my 315lbs just fine. To those of you with experience, will a steel frame be able to support that weight?

jetboy 

Any touring bike would be fine- they are made to hold a person +100lbs of stuff and ride on rough roads etc etc.
something like:

lostarchitect 

Sure, you will be fine, and a touring frame is good advice.

You will have more trouble with wheels. I would make sure you get 36 spoke wheels, and get a frame that can handle wide tires.

noobinsf 

A good and inexpensive introduction may be the Peugeot UO-8, a bike you'll see discussed a lot on these threads. It is a straight-gauge steel frame, so a bit heavier than the highest performance bikes of the era, but the geometry makes for a ride many rave about, and it is a strong frame. They're abundant on craigslist, and you should be able to find one in good shape for not much money. You'd have a ton of room for wide tires, and if you want to convert to 700c from the standard 27" wheels, the standard MAFAC Racer brakes can handle the transition.

Just a thought...

Wilfred Laurier

Just about any frame made from any material, except for maybe the super light type intended for elite racing, will have no problem holding your weight.

At my heaviest (about 280 lbs) I definitely preferred aluminum as it was stiffer and still a bit lighter than most steel frames, plus they seemed to last longer than the few steel frames I broke. There has been a real resurgence in steel bikes since then, though, and many of the newer ones seem to be built for strength and less for light weight.

As for the Peugeot recommendation above, while those are beautiful bikes, my experience with vintage Peugeots was that they were even flexier than other lightweight steel frames I tried... not that it would be likely to break, but I found the bottom bracket moved around so much that it caused the chain to jump back and forth on the chainrings when climbing... but maybe that was just my 300 lb gorilla riding style.

My advice: find a bike you like and that fits properly, and ride it like ya stole it! But don't actually steal it!

Jarrett2

Steel is absolutely the way to go for Clydes.

But what makes you want to move away from your aluminum bike?

jetboy 

he's fallen for the looks. there were specific tube sets made to be stiffer and stronger (and slightly heaver) for heavier loads that you could look for. Like 531 ST and ATB - won't have the problematic flex of a UO8, be lighter and just as strong. but the other question is how much you are looking to spend.

wheels and tires are the other big thing as said above: that is why I would first consider touring bikes as they have clearance for larger tires and would have stronger wheels as standard.

therunt

I won't be moving away from the aluminum bike entirely. I've just always wanted a steel road bike, since I was child, but my mom was always afraid the frame would collapse under my weight (I weighed in at about 250 in 7th grade), so I only had mtbs growing up. To get a steel bike now would satisfy that childhood want. Plus those steel steel frames just look so bad ass.

bloom87

Columbus MAX tubing is great steel if you're willing to put out the $$$.
Another wise choice would be Columbus SP tubing.

I would steer clear of ultrathin tubing series (Genius, Neuron, etc.)

Have fun !

Jarrett2

I've ridden steel from 275-295 lbs.

My touring bike carried 365 lbs on one tour without issue. Over 300 on other tours.

Granted these are modern steel bikes though. I don't ride anything else.

therunt

I'd say my budget would be about $500. I'm going to wait at least til my birthday in January to buy the bike, unless of course a deal comes up that I can't pass on.