Confess about your geared ride

Kinesis do a Racelight scandium frameset? The Kona cross bikes are scandium too.

so....
who makes a good scandium road bike?

pegoretti. love no3 frameset. it is £2600 but you get to pick a nice colour.

before you all get carried away about scandium it's just a small addition to the aluminium (in the same way chromium/niobium/molybdenum etc are added to steel in small amounts).
traditionally scandium frames were for racing and weren't expected to last forever, i.e. much beyond a few seasons of hard use. metallurgy may have advanced since i read that internet rumour though :-)

there is so much armchair bullshit theory™ in this thread.

@ MrSmyth - agreed, I'm still waiting for someone to come out with the "vertically stiff but laterally compliant" comment though. :-)

Incidently... My armchair has fantastic laterally compliance, while being vertically stiff enough to ensure no power loss during.... <insert activity of chioce here>.

@Mrs myth

Maybe you read it in Rouleur?

Maybe you read it in Rouleur?

i only have 1 edition of rouleur, i don't think there is anything about scandium in there? only some anal bike collectors having a circle jerk over a boxed set of campagnolo nouvo-record (covered in protective film to protect the packaging)

Ok I laughed at that. 'Glazing donuts'.

before you all get carried away about scandium it's just a small addition to the aluminium (in the same way chromium/niobium/molybdenum etc are added to steel in small amounts).
traditionally scandium frames were for racing and weren't expected to last forever, i.e. much beyond a few seasons of hard use. metallurgy may have advanced since i read that internet rumour though :-)

Much BS is written about scandium enriched frames. As far as I understand it the scandium reduces grain size, which reduces crystallisation post wielding.

....or something.

Anyway the point being that the scandium does not affect the way the metal feels to ride. But does change the way it can be worked. Which takes us back to geometry, tube dimensions, frame design etc. being the overiding factor with regards to frame 'feel'.

Nearly everything I know about bikes is based on internet BS though. So dont take my word for it ;)

before you all get carried away about scandium it's just a small addition to the aluminium (in the same way chromium/niobium/molybdenum etc are added to steel in small amounts).
traditionally scandium frames were for racing and weren't expected to last forever, i.e. much beyond a few seasons of hard use. metallurgy may have advanced since i read that internet rumour though :-)

Phew! presses cheek against cold titanium

When modulus is tested they do not use a thicker bit of aluminium cause its lighter. They use a test piece of the same dimensions for all materials.

Yes. And measured like that, aluminium is less stiff than steel. But it you made the piece of aluminium thicker until it weighed the same as the piece of steel, it would be stiffer than the piece of steel. So weight for weight, aluminium is stiffer than steel. Which is why people use it to build bike frames when they want them to be stiff and light.

Agreed. Depending on it's mixture it is also tough (forgiving). Not brittle. (Like carbon and steel)*

*I might have made all this up in my 4th level dream where it all made sense. (Hans Zimmer was playing afterall)

Where's Mmmm to the D to the C to the C tester? Bmmmmf.

Yes. The problem that aluminium has is that it is more prone than steel to fatigue failure. if it is flexed over and over again, and the distortion is too great, it becomes work-hardened, and eventually brittle, leading to cracking. The exposed edge of the cracked metal has a distinctive stippled look to it after fatigue failure. Steel can be stretched a lot further and a lot more times and still spring back to it's original size without any effect on the structure of the material.
In a bike frame, this isn't necessarily a problem - a really stiff frame doesn't bend enough anywhere for metal fatigue to set in. But it can happpen. I once had a lovely mountain bike frame made of double-butted 7005 Easton aluminium, and after some years of heavy use the down-tube split near the bottom bracket, right where you'd expect the maximum twist from pedal action to bite. I've seen two other aluminium frames with similar fatigue fractures.

It's so annoying when frames break.

Both steel I guess...

Anyway, I've seen masses of cracked/broken frames in steel, alu and composite.
I still blame the company for taking my Mg frame to make XTR rear mech prototypes.

Hey hippy what material are those frames made from?

Winding up purists is fun.

I'll let you guess. I wouldn't want this fun to end.

I enjoy my 653 Langdale greatly, mainly because i've never tried a carbon bike over any distance.

A mid 90's steel racer is a great deal cheaper too.

why the long face?

It's so annoying when frames break.

Four words:

Put
down
the
fork

:)

I enjoy my 653 Langdale greatly, mainly because i've never tried a carbon bike over any distance.

A mid 90's steel racer is a great deal cheaper too.

bikes that look like animals thread>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

bikes that look like animals thread>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Spot on. :)

And I believe the word you're not struggling for in the slightest is 'pedantry'.

No, it's 'literacy'.

No, it's 'literacy'.

Mistakes are often the mother of invention. Without which the English language would not be as dominant and prolific as it is today. Long may they rain.

:p

Long may Scoble reign.

Ftfy

If people were really honest it's down to aesthetics. I've bought more frames / bikes where the final deciding factor on whether I should buy it or not was down to the colour. I bet the golden ratio figures in why steel frames generally are more attractive, (i'm not saying alu / carbon aren't).