Which frames/bikes from the 1990s were bought (and survived)

[Peachy!]

Simple.. the aluminium rigid bikes cracked and were binned, the steel didn’t and survived....

(Today’s lunchtime pootle)

I suppose it could be argued that mass produced Alu frames were still an experiment in the 1990s, whereas brazed and lugged steel frames had been proven through decades of building and use.

Is that an RAF base and a Hawk?

Yorkshire Air Museum and that’s a Hunter. The most beautiful Cold War fighter IMO

 

[mk one]

Plenty of Aluminum bikes about during the 90's. Steel is real though, aluminum frames back then were fairly rigid, but you could get them light and were good for racing, though the use of super-light tubesets did result in a lot of failures

 

[legrandefromage]

Ebay seems to have a lot of steel-framed 1990s bikes for sale, and not so many aluminium-framed 1990s bikes. What does this mean?

A few possibilities:

1. Alu frames were an emerging technology in a world where steel frame production dominated. Most frame production was not setup for aluminium, and so not many Alu-framed bikes were produced and sold in the 1990s
2. Many of the 1990s Alu frames that were produced and sold did not last as long as steel frames
3. Those who bought Alu-framed bikes tended to be off-road enthusiasts who rode them hard and often (eventually leading to frame failure), whereas many steel framed MTBs spent a lot of time in sheds and garages not being ridden
4. Those who bought/own Alu-framed bikes like them a lot, and rarely put them up for sale
5. Steel-framed bikes sold more because they were generally seen by the buying public as better value for money, or a more reliable, proven, tried and tested, traditional construction method

Hardly any of that applies!

*the following is from the vaults, there are some good frame builders on here that can give you better information but I'll try and do my bestest*

Cannondale had been producing welded almniumuiumm frames from the early 80s, GT and many others from the late 80's. Prior to that it was 'glued & screwed' - lugs with tubing bonded or forced, these processes survived into the 90's with carbon & lugs using similar (Vitus, Alan, Peugeot carbon fibre/ alumnium, 'Pecheny Process' alumnium and Giant 'Cadex' carbon fibre tubed frames)

Claud Butler even had a few imported frames out in the very early 90's let alone all the other big brands such as Scott and Giant

Popular brands like Marin and Kona brought theirs out a little later and as already mentioned, they would have been more expensive

Later models towards the early 2000's were sold more as jump bikes and dual slalom

Many high end DH models were alumniumnium as well as lightweight XC and higher end bikes such as Klein.

Aluminium was cheap to source and frames were even cheaper to have mass produced abroad but at first, they were only to be found in the higher range of available models.

The bigger tube diameters lent something of the industrial to the 'look' of the still relatively new 'Mountain bike' giving the opportunity for bigger and bolder designs no longer limited to a suppliers specific lugs and braze-ons that kept steel frames looking the same for so long.

There were generally two types of almumniumum used

6000 series - most commonly 6061-T6 (the T6 relates to its post weld heat treatment)

7000 series - most commonly 7005

6000 series needs to be heat treated and any subsequent repairs require a lot of post weld aftercare not usually provided by many places now let alone decades ago. Strong stuff though, plenty of Zaskars about, some about to enter their 4th decade

7000 series is easier to repair, its a mix of rods to get the same finished material

Extruded 7000 series was used early on by Gary Fisher, Manitou and a couple of others. The extrusion process was done incorrectly leaving oversize crystals of aluminium. These crystals would then leave the frame prone to cracks in stress areas such as bottom brackets, seat tubes and most commonly, the head tube. Head tubes can just go ping from a badly inserted headset or even a slightly out of spec headset (we're looking at you, Manitou / Chris King owners).

This would then spell the end for many many frames.

Then theres dents and accident damage; a steel frame can often be repaired whereas with alumnmmnmiummmmum its nowhere near as easy to replace a seat tube or a rear stay etc etc (headtubes aside).

Then then then! There are the early frames themselves, Gary Fisher frames tended to be 1 1/4 headtubes and pressfit BB bearings, Boss were 1 1/4, forks were not as easily sourced as the almost ubiquitous 1 1/8 size that was taking over from the 1"

And as the scene rapidly splintered into the mid 1990's with the downhill scene bringing gnarlier looking bikes and forks, the longer and longer suspension fork would be stuffed into the most innocent of almuniummmmmmmumumum frames quite literally trying to lever the head tube off after a few jumps or (whilst making a warranty claim in the bike shop) ''I was just riding along when....''

So, to sum up: weird sizes, weird materials, miss-use and initial purchase costs

 

[hookooekoo]

For reference purposes, in the world of road bikes, steel was still winning big races up until 1994. I guess aluminium then took over, followed by carbon. However, race teams are probably more worried about weight and stiffness, and some of their frames likely got replaced after one season, long before they cracked.

According to this website, Reynolds (steel) dominated the Tour de France in the post war years (24 wins in 25 years).

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/late ... ing-199581

Post-war, 531 tubing took up where it had left off in cycling, and by the 1970s Reynolds claimed 531 frames and forks had been used in 24 out of 25 successive Tour de France victories.

During the golden era of lightweight steel tubing, Reynolds 531 dominated not only professional racing but all disciplines of cycling with variants such as 531ST (Super Tourist) and 531ATB (All Terrain).

However, elsewhere we learn that 1994 was the last time that anyone won the TdF on a steel framed bike.

https://gizmodo.com/100-years-of-tour-d ... -709973821

The very last time a steel frame bike won the Tour was in 1994, when Miguel Indurain clinched his fourth of five wins.

 

[legrandefromage]

Just to add,

Steel frames fail A LOT, rust and poor welds/ joins with some very expensive kit rusting itself out

Titanium cracks A LOT - once had a customer bring in a very boutique titanium track bike that he'd been using as a commuter - I found 4 separate cracks, 1 which was game over for the frame

Carbon fibre - environmental nightmare and a black mark on cyclings' green credentials - cracks, pops, delaminates, awful stuff.

 

[FluffyChicken]

Trek had it Alu road frames in '85 and applied that to MTB's in '88

 

[MT62]

Steel is real, that's why.

Well even the Carbon or Titanal experiments were there in the early 90s. Wouldn't say that aluminium frames necessarily crack, many brands made them quite solid I would say.
Anyway, the early ones were priced higher than steel equivalents and not all of them had any real advantage, not being that lighter and such. I partially think that aluminium overtaking steel in the late 90s/00 years is mostly a marketing thing, as even early 00s alu models are not light or crackproof.
Talking about random mid-range frames, more from the side of "massive spread", so I excluded the top of the range bikes.
Oh, the more in-depth posts in this thread are great.

(having owned late 80s Technium, Trek 8500, Hagan Titanal and some later random alu frames.)

 

[hookooekoo]

Yorkshire Air Museum and that’s a Hunter. The most beautiful Cold War fighter IMO

I never knew that museum existed. Will have to visit sometime, assuming anywhere is ever allowed to reopen.

 

[KermitGKona88]

Re:

I have had 2 different Muddy Fox Alu Team frames circa 1991 both were lighter than my steel frames and tough as old boots the only thing that cracked on both of them was the OEM alloy stem.

Every material that you can build a frame has it's up and down sides as LGF has quite well noted, a lot of early aluminium frames suffered from a fatigue life that made them go baggy and lifeless after a while, much like the Magnesium wonder that is the Kirk Revolution.

 

[trailwright]

Concur absolutely with legrandfromage. Aluminium was big in the early 90s having raced various bikes made of the stuff since '89. The 7000 series stuff was not great to be honest, especially when combined with 1 1/4" headsets.

For example, I ran a 1990 Alpine Stars Alu XT which was dreadful quality; another of the ubiquitous 7000 series Taiwanese frames that found their way to several brands like Scott, Boss, Muddy Fox, Pacific, Fisher etc. This bike had already warranty replaced an 89 MS Racing CR1 which interestingly had a 5000 series front triangle if I recall on which the lovely black paint all flaked off within weeks of ownership, hence the replacement AS. 7000 series made bikes were usually always much cheaper than 6000 series models (except for Fisher as you were paying for his name!)

The best of them all was my 1992 GT Zaskar which was 6061. Over engineered, especially around the head tube after GT learned their lessons from early prototypes (who remembers seeing Dave Wonderley on his 'Rainbow Bicycle Company it's not a GT honestly' bike and the inevitable broken headtube. That is why so many early GT's exist.

Cannondale were early pioneers of the stuff but they were prone to breaking the rear drop out due to the weird extended design they used. You just don't see very many 80s or 90s Cannondales in my opinion which is a pity.

Also raced a 91 Trek 8700 with the aluminium lugs and rear triangle with carbon composite main tubes and that was a nice bike, but chain suck wore a hole in the aluminium chain stay and it cracked.

Orange did some light stuff, but a late 90's Alu Elite I had was poorly designed as the trend for putting on replaceable rear mech hangers meant the aluminium at that point got very thin to accommodate the billeted hanger which in my case meant the frame failing and not the hanger.

Generally though, a great time to be in the action with so much development and interesting stuff going about!