For what it's worth, this isn't a "bicycle world" issue, it's much larger than that. Aluminum wheels on motor vehicles are routinely called "Alloys", for example.

Basically, in inaccurate and vernacular American English, "alloy" is a synonym for "aluminum".

I don't know the names of Aluminum and Titanium Alloys used in bicycle frames. I do know a few in older steel frames and enjoy pleasant conversations with others that do. All in all Steel Remains Real.

There are many but these few come to mind.

853
531
Dedecciai
Columbus
CroMo

Why do cyclists ride bikes, but bikers ride motorcycles?

Why is the one clean-shaven guy in ZZ Top named Frank Beard?

.... :foo: "none" are plural ......:foo:

Basic steel isn't an alloy since it only has one metallic element. Iron and carbon. "Alloy steel" is different from "steel".

By tradition, small amounts of metal additives are also not called "alloy steel", while the term is reserved for higher concentrations of other metals

I would not be surprised if pure aluminum had a bad rep at one point, and emphasizing the fact that it is an alloy was key to getting cyclists to accept rims and components made of it. 6061 was originally known as "Alloy 61S" in 1935.

FYI, not per Merriam-Webster.

(emphasis mine)

Nor Cambridge. Or Brittanica. Or any other reference that I can find.

Enclosure of "none" in quotation marks presents it as an example that is thus grammatically singular. Same as this example: "boats" is usually the wrong term for describing ocean-going vessels.

Some people get torqued up when definitions and grammar ain't used correctly, even when it's understood what they're talking about.

The classic example is the term brass brazing. Is it bronze? Is it brass? I use Gasflux C-04 Nickel bronze when I'm not using Harris 56 or 50N silver alloy. I'm fine saying it's either brass or silver, I'm pretty sure no one gets confused.

Now, let's argue about clipless pedals. Don't you clip into them?

"Strapless" or "clip-in" would have been better. "Clipless" is dumb. I know where it comes from, but it's still dumb.

The real question is why don’t we call them solutions? That’s what they are…homogeneous solid mixtures which is the definition of a solution.

Who's the jerk that first called snapping into clipless pedals "clipping in"?

Sure. So water with iron dissolved in it is an alloy.

Or singular. “None” is photon or electron of language. It can be singular…”there is none available”…or plural…”none of the tests were positive”. It’s what you need it to be when you need it to be that thing. A photon is a particle when it needs to be and a wave when it doesn’t. Depends on the context.

Where I'm from it's aluminium, SO YOU'RE ALL WRONG!

Submarines and sailboats? I know… “usually.”

I'm pretty black and white on a lot of things with no gray (grey) areas. But if someone wanted to gift me financially, I would accept a cheque as readily as a check.

Sure, if you can get water not to boil off when mixed with molten iron, or if you can fuse water and iron together, then in either case, you've got an alloy. Good luck with that.

That said, you are arguing the wrong person. Take your complaint up with all of the people who publish those dictionaries, which, with a few others, are cumulatively the authority on the English language -- not with me.

If someone tells you that you have enough bicycles and you don't need any more, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.

I need to remember this wisdom the next time we discuss (or not discuss) my bicycles (with my wife). 😉

Iron wouldn’t form an alloy with water because iron isn’t water soluble and water isn’t an element. Alloys are solid solutions of elements and, usually, only metals. Carbon is an nonmetalic element in iron but, for the most part, alloys are metal mixtures. Alloys can only form if the elements are soluble in each other and there are a lot of metals that won’t alloy together. Lead and zinc, for example, won’t alloy. Iron won’t alloy with copper, tin, bismuth, or aluminum. Copper won’t alloy with tungsten. Slagesium that is currently being sold on a whole lot of Chinese bicycles from HellMart is likely iron that hasn’t been separated well from the other metals in the waste stream. It likely contains copper, tin, and aluminum which are fairly common in mixed metal waste streams.

somebody wake me up when we get to hypereutectoid microconstituents

Valid point.

My clipless pedals and shoes have cleats, and are, therefore, clipless.

It goes back further. Who was the person who called the metal bands on pedals “clips”? They are foot cages. Synonyms for “clip” are things like fastener, clasp, catch, pin, buckle, lock, etc. A “cage” has synonyms like enclosure, pen, and confine which is what a “toe clip” does even without the straps.

None of the words for clip actually fit the description of the “toe clip”. They fit the description for the mechanism for clipless pedals perfectly.

When talking about being connected to clipless pedals, people generally use the term "clipped in". How can you be clipped in to something with no clips?

As pointed out by cyccommute, the term "clips" is bad, from the start. The downstream effect of that poor bit of terminology continues to haunt us.

Now we need to discuss alloy clips.

Supposedly made by Shimano for the 7400 pedals, but I’ve never seen them…