bp2k8

I like steel as long as tange/champion 2 to 0 as well as columbus aluminum.

fietsbob

bikes are both steel and aluminum.

Maelochs

MY CF bike has aluminum and steel parts.

Jarrett2

This is what I read on the Internet from random strangers:

This is what my own experience proves to me:

I've owned and ridden very nice aluminum, carbon fiber, titanium and steel framed bikes. Some of them literally had the exact same geometry but different frame materials and there was absolutely a different feel between them. Out of all the bikes I've owned and ridden, the steel ones are the most comfortable to ride over long, hard distances on varied road types. And my fastest rides have all been on steel, so the weight difference didn't negatively impact my performance.

I agree that if you take a steel/aluminum/carbon fiber/titanium road bike and do a 20 mile ride on city streets, you probably wouldn't be able to tell a difference between them. But do the same riding from town to town, across counties on long rides in varied roads and conditions and suddenly things will be come noticeably different.

DrIsotope

This is how I feel about almost every cycling component, not just frames-- virtually anything will work for an hour. Out past mile 100, you begin to learn things. It occurred to me one day that almost every part on my bike was chosen with it's features in this order: comfort, durability, cost, appearance, weight.

Plenty of folks can be perfectly happy on a $15 OEM saddle or a 7005 aluminum frame, and be served well by them for years. But compared to many of the "serious cyclists" I know personally, I've exceeded their annual mileage total by the end of March.

pickettt

I've ridden and raced a lot of bikes over the years and here's my take on frame materials; GENERALLY, steel is the most comfortable, aluminum is the stiffest, and carbon is the lightest. I can ride any one of them and not long for the others.

Maelochs

@jarret2---I stand by my statement.

What a frame is made of has nothing to do with its comfort, its performance, anything ....

A steel frame can be springy, even whippy, or it can be unforgivingly rigid .... it depends on design and construction. Just as a frame in Any material can be designed with high or low head-tube angles and small or large trail, short or long wheelbases, and thus feel snappy or sluggish .... it is the design, not the material which determines a frame's stiffness or compliance.

Aluminum is more easily formed than steel, so it can be shaped to provide different mixtures of stiffness and compliance ... but since it is less springy, in my experience a good Al frame benefits from a good CF or steel fork ... particularly because a fork is so physically small, it is hard to design in any compliance in aluminum.

CF can be molded into any shape a designer can imagine, almost. A CF bike can be more rigid than steel, or more springy ... look at the pencil-thin seatstays on some bikes. A CF frame can be tuned to much greater precision and to a wider range or performance parameters than a steel frame.

Of course, it is hard to make a CF frame with all the attachment points for racks and such for traditional loaded touring ... but also, even a steel-framed tourer needs to be a little more rigid than a steel sot bike ... once you get everything vibrating, you don't want to develop sympathetic vibrations and standing waves ....

As for "Yeah,. people who disagree simply don't ride enough miles ... " yeah, well. I have done a coupe cross-country tours and a bunch of shorter tours on a variety of bikes. I have done fully-loaded and supported tours, but I have definitely put in long rides on a variety of bikes made of a variety of materials. In my opinion ...

Fit and frame design are the determining factors in ride comfort. A stiff bike is stiff no matter what it is made of, and a compliant bike is compliant similarly. A good saddle which actually hits you where your bones need support and doesn't flex too much, bars which are at a distance and angle so your body isn't over-extended or compressed, gearing which allows you to keep weight on the pedals without killing your legs (I am sure we have all done rides where we roasted our legs in the first hours and the last hour really hurt our butts, hands, and shoulders .... )

Having done long rides on a lot of bikes, I still say it is frame design, not frame material which plays the biggest role in determining comfort ... and fit which trumps everything.

But that is just an opinion .... and we all know the "Steel is Real" crowd cannot tolerate objection ..... I tell them Try Ti, you will never go back .... " but I don't have a Ti bike ......