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Why the comeback in the Nineties?
Because reliable glue became available, and stronger aluminium alloys. Bonded frames like Alan and Vitus solve all the problems I listed above (even if they introduce new ones of their own). Even they were only moderately successful at a fairly high price, it took the introduction of alloys which could achieve full strength with post-weld heat treatment to make aluminium frames mainstream.
gbj_tester-
Furry muff.
Even so, considering the weight advantage of aluminium over steel (and the pool of reckless talent) it's still surprising to me that there weren't any "ally" bikes in the Fifties and Sixties.
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i was under the impression the difference between Alan and Vitus is that Alans are threaded tubes pasted with bond and screwed in
vitus just bonded tubes into lugs
i learnt this through the CIA, google
Scilly.Suffolk
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Why the comeback in the Nineties?
Given the obsession with weight, I still find it curious that it took forty-odd years for it to reappear.
Even on a kitchen-sink scale, you'd have thought the Mike Burrows of the day would have turned something out.