Why you should ride steel

[Matthew]

I like my lugged carbon Meivici pretty well. And my two Moots are pretty nice too. Maybe steel is great, but I don't think I'm doing myself a disservice by riding fine carbon or Ti. I'd love a CSI or Atlanta though.

[DHallerman]

Originally Posted by Wakatel_Luum

My heart loves steel but my head says titanium is more logical...

My heart loves logic, so my head says titanium has everything I want and need.

[Waldo62]

"A spring-loaded cloud" is how a friend who briefly rode my Erickson described it. I agree and would add that it descends surgically. I've ridden a couple of dozen bikes over the last 35 years, some from builders of highest acclaim, and have never experienced anything like it. It's magical.

[redir]

Originally Posted by zennmotion

Not saying you're wrong but this is also what I thought for decades and I was also sort of right but also wrong. The fact that a typical 56 square stock road frame fits me quite nicely, having owned lots of stock steel (and Ti and Alu and Carbon) frames through the years, including racing road and CX without "fit" related complaints, I could always put the saddle and handlebar in the right place. Then I had Tom Kellogg of soon-to-be-retired Spectrum fame measure me up a few years ago for a steel frame/fork, with no surprises (from the geometry and dimension numbers) in his design, looked pretty close to a typical stock 56 cm with a few adjustments here and there including a barely noticeable 1-2cm slope on the top tube, a few (literally just 3-4mm's) extended head tube etc. Just very small incremental changes in several places compared with my many stock frames that fit well in the past. Steel fork of course to customize the handling. And the whole thing is a noticeable step up from any other bike I own of any material in terms of long-day comfort and rock solid handling. I don't know the secret sauce to what makes this feel different to me with what appears to be a very-close-to-"stock" design and I didn't ask many questions about the tweaks, just trusted Tom after a half day fitting session and interview, and picked out the color. So the "fit argument" resonates with my experience, and how my body feels after a long ride on the custom vs one of my other road bikes is not a placebo effect. The sum of all the little differences is a profoundly different feeling bike. Nor is the carvy feeling on twisty downhills or holding a line on a rough road-it's not placebo, it's Tom listening to me tell him how I like my handling (neutral steering, holds a line through a turn, ability ride no hands on sketchy gravel- "agility" is secondary). The wheels are in the right place and while I can get good/close with a stock frame, the small differences add up. Which is mostly why I would never buy a used frame that was custom designed for someone else, it makes no sense to me, I'm better off with a standard stock bike after looking carefully at the dimensions. I also think, that with age (I'm well into my --cough-- 50s and not in racing shape anymore) the small design tweaks are more noticeable as my body becomes less tolerant of aches and pains that accompany a long hard ride (and for me, now, a long hard ride is limited to something more than 4 hours these days). The Spectrum makes it easier for me to do that- it's cool that it's steel, but I don't care for nostalgia, carbon is cool (and lighter!) but I'm more focused on what's going to enhance my riding experience and fit, handling,design>>>weight any day for the riding I do. Oh, and most importantly, it's british racing green.

https://forums.thepaceline.net/showp...81&postcount=2

I can only take your word for it, and I do. My next bike will most likely be a custom made steel CX bike so hopefully one day I will be able to find out for myself.

[zennmotion]

Originally Posted by redir

I can only take your word for it, and I do. My next bike will most likely be a custom made steel CX bike so hopefully one day I will be able to find out for myself.

From my experience (15? seasons of CX pack fodder when the pack was kind enough to allow me to catch up) the thing about a CX bike (if we're talking about a CX bike for punter racing with a number pinned accidently on the wrong side, corrected 30seconds before the start gun ), not "gravel" or "all road" or whatever) is that no matter what frame you ride it's gonna hurt. I always saw CX bikes as pure tools, racin' is bumpin' and all that. Shimagnolo and parts bin setups, ride it 'til you break it. Some frame designs handle better than others of course (the worst I ever rode was a gorgeous stock Waterford X22 steel, but it handled like a pig, it made me look even more like an idiot). So in that scenario, a CX custom didn't make sense for me. Now that my racing days are mostly in the rear view mirror, I'd love a custom steel CX. Rim brakes because I'm old and stubborn and the kids these day with their brakes that work don't appreciate a good slickery panic hairpin maneuver braking (or not) through the snow fence. CX rules. CX bikes rule them all! Slap down that deposit, life is too short!

[Fixed]

Originally Posted by Waldo62

"A spring-loaded cloud" is how a friend who briefly rode my Erickson described it. I agree and would add that it descends surgically. I've ridden a couple of dozen bikes over the last 35 years, some from builders of highest acclaim, and have never experienced anything like it. It's magical.

Love that color when something is made by hand each one is a little different
imho never let go of that bike

Years ago I raced on a Team bike a Clark Kent it had a feeling I never felt on another bike
Cheers

[Blue Jays]

Very happy with all my frames, in all various materials, all crafted by top builders.

[Wakatel_Luum]

Originally Posted by rustychisel

Nope. Sorry, gonna call your logic again... my steel bike was welded up in 1964, no rust, no slop, no fatigued steel. It just is.

My aluminium bike was welded up in 2000 or thereabouts. No frame fatigue, yada yada. It just is.

The carbon fibre bike hasn't rusted, fallen apart, melted or blown up either. Fancy that.

I have two Merlin Extralight's and a steel Tommasini...I live next to the beach and the titanium gives me no problems with salt, rain or rust etc...the Tommasini does even though I I only ride it on sunny days now. My previous Olmo had the same problems...

There is no way I'm riding a steel bike through winter along the beach in the rain on a steel bike anymore...so for me Titanium is more logical and more suitable to poor conditions.

Plastic bikes just don't count to me anymore...IMO.

[makoti]

Originally Posted by m_sasso

Don't own any bikes made from dead dinosaurs, like the tag line reads.

Your tag line actually says you are part of the resin revolution. You need a space in between "a" and "part"

[redir]

Originally Posted by zennmotion

From my experience (15? seasons of CX pack fodder when the pack was kind enough to allow me to catch up) the thing about a CX bike (if we're talking about a CX bike for punter racing with a number pinned accidently on the wrong side, corrected 30seconds before the start gun ), not "gravel" or "all road" or whatever) is that no matter what frame you ride it's gonna hurt. I always saw CX bikes as pure tools, racin' is bumpin' and all that. Shimagnolo and parts bin setups, ride it 'til you break it. Some frame designs handle better than others of course (the worst I ever rode was a gorgeous stock Waterford X22 steel, but it handled like a pig, it made me look even more like an idiot). So in that scenario, a CX custom didn't make sense for me. Now that my racing days are mostly in the rear view mirror, I'd love a custom steel CX. Rim brakes because I'm old and stubborn and the kids these day with their brakes that work don't appreciate a good slickery panic hairpin maneuver braking (or not) through the snow fence. CX rules. CX bikes rule them all! Slap down that deposit, life is too short!

I really wanted to get one from a local builder but he's out of business now He was young and won some awards for his work too but alas!

I had a Trek XO Alluminum CX bike and that thing about destroyed me. I switched to a steel bike and could not believe the difference. I probably have about 15 season of CX too. I managed to claw my way to Cat2 but that's as far as I could go. My racing days are in the rear view mirror now too. But I like to enter the occasional masters race as pack fodder now. And then it's nice to double up and do the pro/1/2 race and get blown off the back at the start line

[William]

Steel is real!!





William