High-end steel road bicycles vs carbon fiber bikes

Re:

Interesting one this. Talk to a dozen different experts and get 12 different opinions. Top end steels can be built uber stiff and whilst there is a weight penalty - its probably only 600g (or a full water bottle). Bearing in mind that there is a UCI weight limit and teams are often using alloy bars/stem to get up to that weight, I don't see weight as the limiting factor. Madison Genesis are using 953 frames, but really they are a tier 2 team so not going head to head with the very best riders. It would be interesting to see what the likes of Froome could do with a top steel frame.

I have a Reynolds 953 frame built with Chorus 11 speed and Cannondale Supersix Evo (one of the lightest production frames) with Ultegra Di2 - the Cannondale is 250g lighter. Performance wise - there's nothing in it at my level. I like that it's hand built for me (harder to achieve with carbon) and beautifully finished. It's likely to last a long time, it is unlikely to deteriorate with age and can be repainted to look like new - It went with the standard size rather than super OS so, to me, it is classically pretty (I realise that is subjective). A friend of mine was rear ended on a Dogma last week and he's panicking that it needs to be x-rayed before he dare ride it and is considering binning it. 953 is notoriously hard to dent and I wouldn't be worried about the frame if I came off. the longevity of carbon is still a bit of an unknown.

Carbon fibre is fashionable at the moment. I would imagine that it's easier to mass produce and the team bike sponsors want to sell bikes to the masses.
 
02gf74":2lrao7xf said:
Best for racing? Surely all you need to do is see what the top cyclists use e.g. tour of france, olympics etc and the answer is carbon fibre.

Its a wonderous material, stiff and light. And its replacement of traditional materials goes beyond cycling, such as formula 1, tennis, rowing, sailing, darts etc.

Its use in other markets such as F1 is also influenced by the fact that you can make it any shape.
 
02gf74":1ynz1rbb said:
Best for racing? Surely all you need to do is see what the top cyclists use e.g. tour of france, olympics etc and the answer is carbon fibre.

Its a wonderous material, stiff and light. And its replacement of traditional materials goes beyond cycling, such as formula 1, tennis, rowing, sailing, darts etc.
I've just noticed you referenced darts - I cant take you seriously now :D
 
JSH":tsdanqqr said:
Its use in other markets such as F1 is also influenced by the fact that you can make it any shape.
That's a very good point. The advantages of carbon frames would be bigger if the UCI 'three pipe structure' regulation was removed.
 
Re:

My uderstanding is they are using aluminium bars and stems because they are less likely to fail catastrphically, rather than to bump the weight up to min limits.
 
yup, after a big group smack they all want to be back on the bike asap with the minimum of worry
 
Carbon has a higher specific strength and specific stiffness. You can simply build a stronger, stiffer frame with less mass.

Not as resilient to impact damage or, as others have said, being bashed around day-to-day.

It's also anisotropic. Metals aren't. You can design your strength or stiffness in whichever direction in the component you like.

I prefer steel.
 
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