Ciminera wrote: ↑19 Jun 2022, 7:14pm
I was thinking about the general preference in touring and adventure riding for steel bikes. I've heard some compelling reasons for this
however, those bikes still have aluminium wheels and handlebars, etc... what's the reasoning there?
...well, some of it is down to bicycle component history, some is down to personal preference, some is down to performance versus risk analysis and some of it is down to cost and parts availability...
Way back when Raleigh ruled the bicycle world, many of their adverts advised that they produced an all steel bicycle. Which was good and strong...
..and it was. However the steel wheel rims didn't stop very well in the wet and the chrome rusted or in very bad cases simply peeled off(and chroming steel isn't particularly pleasant for those who do it or for the environment). Indeed several cyclists deaths were blamed on rim brakes on steel rims in bad weather conditions..
..As such many cyclists looked towards alloy hubs, cranks, seat posts and handlebars... Alloy gave most cyclists two things they wanted, lighter weight components and they can be polished and shiny without the cyclists worrying about rust. In the case of wheel rims, they would also stop you better in light to moderately heavy rain.
However there were some sacrifices, alloy cranks could snap, alloy handlebars were more likely to fail, and rim brakes used on alloy wheel rims would in time wear them through and cause them to fail (often with a possibility of causing injury to the cyclist).
Many cyclists were happy to carry this risk, simply because they would probably purchase a new bicycle, and scrap the old one, before any of the above issues could occur.
Manufacturers also became more aware of the possible safety issues- handlebars were redesigned, wheel rims came with warning indicators and alloy cranks were over built. Thus lowering the chances of anything bad happening.
As more manufacturers turned to alloy, so there was less demand for really good steel parts, and thus steel cranks, steel handlebars would either be mass produced or if required to be of sufficient quality, produced at greater customer expense (you only have to see how expensive when you look at steel handlebars and axles for certain types of sprint cycle racing). In some cases, steel parts simply stopped being produced*.
As such producing a quality steel bicycle with quality steel parts mades the bicycle cost more and made the bicycle heavier, which in the days of road tests, made the bicycle less competitive when compared against similar models offered by other manufacturers.
Which is why many off the peg touring bicycles feature a large amount of alloy parts.
However if you have the cash, yes you can swap your alloy seat post, stem and handlebars for steel ones (as far as I know, there are no quality steel hubs or wheel rims** available, but I look forward to being wrong)
* if anyone sees any 559 size 36 hole wheel rims in stainless steel, for sale please let me know
)
** if we accept that for many people disc brakes are their first and only braking choice then why not have a return of stronger and shinier (and heavier)) wheel rims for those who go off road