Cyclosaurus

I'm fine with bikes as they are. What I really want is an adamantium U-lock.

Stucky

Hmmmm.... a bamboo bike might satisfy most of @Phil_gretz 's criteria.... (Assuming Phil is a panda)

Stucky

Ya know, the more I think about that, the better it sounds. I mean, just think: Instead of carrying heavy locks and chains, when you get to where you're going, you simply eat your bike; then, you make a doody in the planter out front....and when you're ready to leave, you grab what has grown in the planter-make a fw twists and contortions, like a balloon animal...and ride off into the sunset!

Tundra_Man 

Rats! Beat me to it.

Darth Lefty 

Nobendium. Or maybe mithril. Eternium? Scrith?

Cyclosaurus

Ah, yes, mithril, I forgot how light and strong it is. Also provides excellent protection against orcs and pickup truck drivers, which I think are actually a species of Uruk-hai...

Darth Lefty 

Years ago, I bought for my cubicle a Periodic Table of Imaginary Elements. It's hardly complete - Star Trek alone is responsible for hundreds - but it has a lot of things you might not expect, like Corbomite, Bolonium, and the rare Upsidaisium, which can only be found in mines near Frostbite Falls, MN

Yendor72

Fiber weed- For all you Cheech and Chong fans out there. If they can make a van out of it why not a bike?

bbbean 

No other reason than that and the fact that many of us like to go faster, further, and easier on bikes that are lighter and more reliable. I know what I was riding in the 70s and 80s, and I know what I'm riding now. Now is better.

FWIW, on the farm we had a crew boss who worked for my great grandfather, my grandfather, my father, and my brother and I. He grew up clearing stumps out of a field and plowing one row at a time with a mule. When he was 73 years old. we upgraded our equipment from 8 row to 12 row (major change - cutting edge technology at the time), we gave him the newest tractor and let him spend the first day in the field with the new equipment. I'll never forget the big smile on his face at the end of the day when he climbed down from the tractor - "Fellas, anyone who tells you about the good old days is full of it. THESE are the good old days (his version was more colorful than that, but you get the idea)!"

I get that reverse snobbery is strong in cycling, and I get that lots of people like their steel framed vintage bikes. My own around town bike is an early 1980s Univega MTB (cutting edge technology when I bought it). But don't think that those of us who push the limits of our own abilities and our equipment's performance are all a bunch of vain fools. Tech that doesn't work doesn't last, wnd what gets adopted is what works. We're riding newer bikes because the newer bikes are better suited to what we're doing.

Horses for courses.

BB

rydabent

Like the CF $16,000 Trek Madone????

Leebo

Steel works well for me. The new? Bamboo, but grown in the shape needed. It grows fast so just have it bend and grown to shape for the main triangle, easy.

Doctor Morbius

Bolonium and cheese are a pretty good combination on a sandwich.

Does your table include Krell metal?

Darth Lefty 

No. Maybe it's not an element? But it does have Finkilium, Illudium, and Minovsky particles.

Midlife1960

Hi All - First time post here. Actually one material that's been developed in the past few years is a Flax composite, flax as in Linen Fiber. Think of carbon composites, but instead of using carbon fibers they embed linen fibers in the epoxy matrix. The next step is to develop an organic matrix that is as strong as epoxy. Interestingly the flax composites are better at absorbing vibrations than carbon fibers and has been used in tennis racquets, as hulls for racing sailboats and other sporting equipment.

Doctor Morbius

Focal, a speaker manufacturer in France, also makes drivers using flax.

Aria 900 - Focal

Drew Eckhardt 

What market forces allow companies to charge customers sets a lower bound on price, although they still do better with lower Cost-Of-Goods-Sold.

TheManShow

Amen. Steel is what most recreational rider should be on IMHO. But I will hear the cry carbon it is lighter, and I reply to most go on a diet it is the cheapist way to remove weight from your bicycle.

Stucky

Awww. C'mon now..... Comparing going from a mule to a 12 row-at-a-time tractor to ANYTHING that has changed on bicycles over the last 100 years, is being a tad melodramatic, dontcha think? I mean, shaving a few ounces or even a few pounds from a 15-17lb. bike will have virtually NO effect on the average cyclist- and might translate to a few seconds savings to a serious/pro racer...which is still meaningless, as all the other riders will have the same technology.

I rode bikes in the 70's. Cheap, low-quality bikes. I went a few decades without riding. Now I've had the opportunity to have some late-model high-quality bikes. Then, or now, if i have any disappointments/frustrations/complaints related to cycling, they have nothing to do with the bicycles; they have to do with the engine. You can make bikes out of moonbeams and stardust.....but that's not going to change anything.

bbbean 

I love it when people who don't race feel comfortable passing judgement on what might or might not be meaningless to someone who actually races. It reminds me of when people who don't farm tell us what will or won't work on our farm.

BB

Stucky

That's not exactly a radical space-age concept. Years ago, they used to make airplanes out of resin-laminated canvas. 25 years ago, I built a kayak using that technique; the resin (Called "airplane dope") was still readily available at a business near the airport near where i lived at the time c. 60 miles from NYC.



Uh-oh......a home-made frame may be in the cards, now!

badger1

+1, from a purely recreational cyclist who never has and never will race.

Stucky

So eggsplain it to me: How is anything like that meaningful to you as a racer, once everybody is riding the same technology? I was under the impression that it was more about the athlete and his condition/abilities- rather than seeing who could afford/come up with the slickest equipment that would give them a slight advantage, until all of their competitors acquiared the same equipment.

badger1

You might consider paying more attention to the sentiment expressed in your signature line. Hmmmm?

Marcus_Ti

What are you asking exactly?

I posted regarding cost to manufacture...and for some reason you choose to discuss consumer retail pricing...as though somehow the two are really related?

Because compared to metal bikes of old, the cost of mass producing a frame line in plastic is a ton cheaper and requires far less in the way of artisan workmanship especially for top end frame. And THAT alone is why carbon fiber has completely eaten metal bikes out of the mass produced market for the most part. Sure the industry loves to sell hype about stiffness and engineering and magical quatch und etwas...but it is mostly hype.

FrozenK

Carbon fiber production is very labor intensive. And it is also very demanding in the QC department. Developing molds is very expensive. While, yes producing CF in China is cheaper than in the US due to the low labor cost carbon fiber is still expensive to produce.

Metal bikes (aluminum and steel) are dirt cheap to produce. Which is why you see metal and not carbon at Walmart. The reason carbon is taking over is because it is a wonderful material to make bikes with. Easily shaped into complex shapes with anisotropic properties. Great weight/stiffness ratio, vibration dampening... and with China's low labor it can be built to prices competitive with metal. It isn't because carbon is cheaper to make, it is because it works better.