Steel vs. Aluminum Frames 

actully magnesium was a thing in the early 90s for frames^^

when you actually "lol" from a comment. thank you

actually theres an Israeli bike shop that makes magnesium track bikes. theyre pretty good bikes and theyre super light and flexible

DeadViper that’s not a good thing

DeadViper im pretty sure no one wants a flexible bike out on the velodrome

Slidewinder GT pretty true if your spending under 600-500 i got a used pure fix for 180$ it definitely affordable and durable but not light

That's right a lightweight and durable steel frame it is not precisely affordable

@@tarzan6405 yeah my dad passed down his pure fix and it’s quite heavy but durable. The brand has been around since early mid 2000’s

Alloy cost more than steel lol

4 party Alloy (hmm yeah it becomes titanium) Ye it just survived 10,000 ft fall so never tell alloy weak , they have a power to become titanium

Loominum is Luminescent Aluminum or Minuim with Loo added to it.

iBecamed loo is a toilet right

Whiskey Hangover no that’s poo

Hmm ... is riding a fixie not already silly?

@@soissesglaubsmir292 i ride fixed and i fail to see the sillyness. Takes skill, get better?

Well was really considering buying the urban track 6ku aluminum

Are you an engineer? You're making bold claims without the qualifications to back them up There's something called material fatigue. Bicycle frames absorb impact and vibrations and have a lifespan. Steel will last for decades, specially Chromoly, a higher quality alloy compared to Hi-tens which has more carbon and rusts (aka compromises structural integrity). Aluminum on the other hand has a much shorter use life, and it doesn't show signs of wear, and rust is harder to spot. So it results in catastrophic failure specially near the fork. Aluminum and carbon are the materials that you see the most suffering catastrophic failure and accidents in trails Chromoly is an expensive method of manufacturing steel. The reason there are so many cheap vintage frames is because the 90s was a time of booming for mountain bikes, so they made a LOT of them, and they used a high quality material to impress the customer

Yes, aluminum has a fatigue limit, one which is easily designed around. If you look at the S-N curves for various common grades of aluminum they tend to behave similar to steel until ~10^6 cycles, after which they continue to fatigue while steel hits an endurance limit (after which steel doesn't fatigue in any meaningful sense). But even at 10^8 and 10^9 cycles and beyond there is still a large amount of strength in the material. This fatigue rate is also impacted by how far along the stress strain curve the cyclical loading occurs. If it's not a significant amount of the total strength of the part, it's not a significant fatigue event. If a frame is designed and produced right (quality) there is no reason that the fatigue limit is a meaningful factor in the frames life. Evidence of this can be seen in things like heavy duty cast aluminum parts on vehicles and similar that see a very high load cycling rate, but with peak forces well below their maximum yield strength lasting for many decades. If we are going to argue that fatigue limits represent an inherent hit to reliability of a bicycle frame, then we should also argue that the corrosion issues of steel, particularly inside a frame also represent a risk to reliability. Clearly we should all be riding titanium frames. :D My original comment isn't implying that aluminum is better or worse than steel, simply that it isn't by itself an indication of reliability (I personally prefer steel frames, but not because of reliability). The quality of the frameset, regardless of material will impact the reliability orders of magnitude more. Especially in a use case like a commuter, which generally sees lower peak forces than most other styles of riding.

I broke 2 Rocky Mountain hybrid performance frames, RC50 2016 edition broke next to the gear set in the back. They replaced for free with 2017 edition, but that one broke in less then a year next the seat post. I am done with aluminum bikes forever and now ride a steel fixed ride and i will never go back to aluminum.

@@TheBalls2thewalls steel is real

You can ride steel in rain or snow just clean it off or spray it down after your ride steel will last lifetimes if you take care. Aluminum frames all way give out no matter if it snaps from fatigue or corrosion. They don’t last Aluminum is weak.

I dont have a road bike but I think I prefer steel with cataphoresis process.

I feel that xD

That shit’s twitchy

Get a good frame and buy components... cheaper than buying with similar parts.....

For God's sake...It's 2017 dude,time to go cheddar already

Giorgos Nitsou all about swiss and i mean swiss cheese

+George N no its not

The weight, or the taste

Swiss cheese for weight reduction, those holes also double as storage

... and it´s escape possibilities ;)

Bamboo specced out pretty well in the life tree

Yeah, same here (except the masters). I was watching this and bringing back memories of beams and material studies. At a certain point I was saying to myself, “the word he’s looking for is ‘ductile’” when he was talking about fatigue stress

And yet none of you two engineers, and the host understand how aluminum oxidation works! (real mechanical engineer here with masters degree) So aluminum oxidizes but only on the surface level, then that oxidation protects the rest of the material from further oxidation (same goes for copper alloys like brass and bronze) plus is more stronger and more resistant then normal aluminum (basically makes the frame a little stronger), unlike steel that can oxidize (rust) until in will be destroyed!!!!!

I know that this is 6 years ago, but trust me steel isn’t faster at all than aluminum. I’ve been riding fixed gear for at least 3 years now and when I first bought my frame, it was a steel retrospect fixie. All of my friends have an aluminum material frame. Every single time I rode with them I was the slowest and left behind. On any ground, trails, streets, etc. and I thought it was my weight, but no. Once I bought an aluminum frame, I was way faster and felt the weight difference. And yea your right, sometimes it depends if it’s flexible or suits your power but I weight 120 and I was still left behind.

@@acidgoon Try riding 50, 100km on a rough surfaced sealed road. Aluminum will kill you from vibration fatigue

@@thomassmith4999 that doesn’t prove my point though, most fixed gear are made for track or street.

@@acidgoon Yeah but a very short distance doesn't show anything other than weight. The randonneur guys are the ones to watch to see what bikes are actually efficient and fast

I own one chromoly bike & one aluminium bike and i totally agree with you. AluBike can propel faster but also fatigue me super quickly while ChromolyBike absorb some push but ride very smoothly for long long distance. Ofcourse i prefer chromolybike :)

James McClellan aluminum is 4X’s as lighter and stronger it doesn’t takes brains to know that.

Austin Araujo stronger? No, it might be stiff but not strong, I already cracked 2 alu frames and 3 forks over the past 6 years, my first chromo bike that I bought second hand from 1997 still kicks ass, love the aluminum but it doesn’t last as long as steel.

The fact is stiff is bad for durability, the impacts and vibrations wear the frame quicker. Aluminium is more brittle of a material than Steel too. Chromoly is by far the best material for bicycle frames and forks, imo, the most durable only second to titanium, but Ti is a whole different league since it's hella expensive

How?

Is your bike still fine?

what carbon bikes ? I just bought a beautiful carbon bike, and rides amazing, but will it brake unexpectedly ?

So it is now a SundayCarbon bike? :))

That's exactly what my dad has been doing for the last 15 years, he works as a bike mechanics and has a lot of friends in that industry so every once in a while he would just arrive home with a brand sparkling new frame that was no longer needed and got gifted to him, it's his hobby and he made some good moneys with it, he once met a guy who wanted to change almost all the gear on his professional mountain bike so they chatted a bit and my dad did the work in exchange for all the old gear, and that's how i got a 300€ shifter on my mountain bike :D Just 2 weeks ago a guy he knew gave him an almost new scott-USA alluminium bike frame for free since he didnt need that anymore and now he's about to sell the bike for 600+ euros It's just amazing for me how people would just throw away perfectly working frames amd components and the right person can make a good amount of money with them

That's exactly the way I think also. The vintage chromoly steel frames are going to outlive 90% of carbon and aluminum frames

😆 point.

Hi 3yesr old comment, I don't have steel bike and I plan to buy one, my question is how do you treat your steel bike that it lasted 33years without a rust??

​@@raymartconcepcion8817Hi 2 year old content.😉 I think he probably didn't treat it.

I'm in the same boat. I ride a aluminium bike on 23mm and I feel every nook and cranny in the road!

Wallace Pelletier I doubt many people ride at - 45C. Pls be serious.

ultimaetsolder I've ridden at -5f

Its actually Not more fragile than Wood

tell that to trump's car window

punzz I know I’m late but D- on the joke

Glass has no flexing ability and shatters.