Cycling UK Forum

Dear All,
I currently ride a reasonably rare bike, a Fahrrad Manufaktur from BikeFix, which is a good workhorse around Oxford (a steel cro-mo double butted frame, rigida 2000 wheels with 37mm tyres and a 7 speed hub) but have thought of buying a secondhand Dawes Discovery 501 for messing about going down the towpath etc. My only concern is that when I rode my wife's Dawes Sonoron, again a well spec'd bike with an aluminium frame similar to the Discovery, I found that the ride seemed.....not plasticky exactly, but light and 'tinny' - not like the Fahhrad at all which seems to have some 'give' and maybe flex.
Does anyone else have these concerns about aluminium framed bikes, or is it just me being pernickety?
Best wishes,
Dave

In my experience I find that tyre choice, fork choice and the way that the frame is designed makes more difference to the feel than the material that it is made from.

I agree with Si. Tyres and wheels make the ride what it is far more than the frame material.

You get roadies absolutely certain they can tell the difference in materials, but they are on rock hard sub1" wide tyres, so everything they ride over is transmitted to the frame and their bodies!

Some roadies also claim to be able to tell the difference between a 73 degree and a 72 1/2 degree frame. Maybe I'm not mechanically sympathetic but I can't.

If you can remember a thread of mine quite some time ago, when I had "an affair with a floosey".

For those that can't (and I can't be bothered to dig it out of the search facility!!) I bought a Vitus Duralinox bike that a chap wanted to get rid of. The wheels and some of the componentry were tired, rusty and shot, so I stripped it down and rebuilt with some of my stuff off my Mercian.

Therefore, Vitus bike 74deg parallel, with my seat, my wheels and tyres, my bars, Ergos and gears.
(Basically the same bike with a different frame)
Result?

A wonderful bike!!

Smoother and also twitchier than my Mercian. Fast and VERY light! Completely different.

So I know that frame materials make a difference.

(I rode her whilst my Mercian was being refurbished. Me and Floosey have called it off for a while, and she's residing in the back of the workshop biding her time ......... )

Ah, but how much was material and how much was weight and design? For instance it could just have been that the bike weighed less and was stiffer in the right places so felt faster.

I've changed my commuter between three frames: 2 Alu and one steel. The two alu ones were wildly different: one being very stiff/fast, the other being very comfortable and much more like the steel one (but a bit faster as it was lighter- the steel one being built for strength not speed).

When C+ did their tests on the stiffnes of frames they assumed that the Alu would be the stiffist - after all it's common knowledge that steel is more comfortable isn't it? However, in the test a steek frame was found to be stiffer than the Alu ones! A lot is down to design (tube diameters, thicknesses, subtypes, cross sections, etc) not just material.

Agree, Si.

It is difficult to have a proper test and experiment, because so many things are variable. I just know that although the bike felt like my Mercian because it had all the Mercian's stuff on it, it didn't feel the same at all.

If I were to do a LEJOG in 5/6 days fully supported, or do and TTs or races, I'd ride the Floosey because of its lightness, speed AND comfort. No good for proper touring though - no mudguards and a "weak" and non-rugged frame.

I'm going to have to dig the thread out of the archives ....
http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=8111
http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=8202

Speedsixdave suggested that the old Vitus frames were "noodley" and not that stiff. I got that impression when I was riding her, very comfortable and forgiving even though the geometry was 74deg and clearances very tight.

Some racers didn't like it because of the "give", but it was certainly light!

Was the Mercian a steel or aluminium frame - same question with the Vitus.
In very general terms, is a steel framed bike likely to have more 'flex' and 'give' and therefore nicer to ride than an aluminium one?

davidsmedley999 wrote:Was the Mercian a steel or aluminium frame -

There was a series of cartoons - the man who dared to...

Have a look at the Mercian Cycles website and see why this is a bit of a gaff.

In fact, I've been admonished before for unintentional nudge nudge wink wink humour so I'll spell it out: Mercian is a very traditional steel using company - a bit of info others have taken for granted.

(And steel -v- alloy - more recently replaced by carbon has been one of those blue touch-paper subjects on here like h#####s and C@===== -v- S#|^^^^)

I've owned a lot of bikes in all sorts of materials, but I found my steel frames have always been the keepers. But there's lots who'd say the same thing with aluminium.
Really, it's best to not let other people tell you what you should ride. Try a couple of bikes and see what you like.
And if you're in Oxford, I reckon you can't go far wrong with a trip to Warlands on the Botley Road. They've lots of bikes like yours and a nice attitude to test rides.

My Mercian Vincitore is 531 Competition - steel (and chromium? and molybdenum?)

Vitus Duralinox - Alumnium - glued lugs and - I can't remember the word for colouring/electro-plating of aluminium!

Mick F wrote:I can't remember the word for colouring/electro-plating of aluminium!

Anodizing?

Yes, that's it!

I spent ages trying to remember ............
What's that word again?

Thought 531 was steel/manganese/molybdenum??