Modern Vs Retro.

steel frames for racing used to be finished after a season


I suppose bike companies have invented a steel which does not obey the laws of physics then Very Happy

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Erm, no. Just very, very thin walled tubing that can be damaged by the scrapes and knocks it'll pick up in a season's pro racing. Very high-end frames couldn't have tubes replaced as they could only take the heat from brazing once before becoming brittle.

Remember that pro-bikes weren't the same as the ones you could buy as Joe Public - even if the bike in the shop has the same paint job and team replica stickers whacked all over it. They were built to last a season of hard use and that's what they got.

An old frame is probably fine for retro-riding around on but if you subjected it to the stresses of racing then it would break. Add 20 years of internal corrosion to paper thin tubing and the failure you experience might not be entirely 'soft' Think about the consequences of a fork crown failure or the headtube being ripped off when you drop the front wheel into a pothole.

For normal frames - yeah - steel should last a long time. Pro frames are not normal frames.

terryhfs":2n25cge9 said:

Finally - longetivity - steel frames for racing used to be finished after a season. That's why the teams gave them away. .

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you might be right?? But I'd use the word Redundant rather than Finished. New frames for the team is more economic and practical. Imagine a top-end team, its riders living all over europe. Each pro is then required to strip his bike, send it to the factory, the dings get taken out, new paint job, chrome cleaned etc etc. Far easier to build a new batch of frames in the new team colours and distribute them at the team presentation. The old frames are then kept by the riders for them to sell.

.. more like professional retirement than death then ?

I must admit that I am increasingly agreeing with a view that it's hard to tell the difference between most frames when riding in the dark. Having recently swapped fork, wheels and running gear from an Alu Kona Cindercone to a steel Pine Mountain I'm really surprised how similar they feel!