carbon or steel

buggieboy

for comfort carbon or steel :?

AidanR

This has been done to death. There are many other factors:

Geometry
Fit
Construction
Tube diameters
Type of steel
Type of carbon
Layup of carbon

The list goes on. Want to find a comfortable bike? Go ride some. Get a fitting.

Buckled_Rims

+1 what AidanR says.

There's too many factors just to say carbon or Steel. My next bike (in a few years time I presume) will probably be a steel bike or maybe Titanium. But that's just me, I really like the simple tubes and layout of them bikes.

cougie

Find bike.

Ride it.

Is it comfy ? If not ride another.

Repeat until happy.

Pokerface

Carbon melts when it gets wet. So go with steel.

Berk Bonebonce

What do you mean by 'comfort'? Your position on the bike, or the smoothness of the ride?

cal_stewart

just about to get a new training bike, i've gone for steel for fit (custom) and for lifescan. You can get steel repair a lot easyer than carbon. Plus cost.

Bar Shaker

Steel will never achieve the engineering properties of carbon.

What are modern aircraft made from?

The future is black. The future is carbon.

johnnyhotdog

The future for me is likely to be 953.

danowat

Bar Shaker wrote:

Steel will never achieve the engineering properties of carbon.

What are modern aircraft made from?

A mixture of Aluminium, CRP, GRP, GLARE and plastics......

Only 20% of the latest Airbus, A380, is made from composite material, so the future is far from only carbon.....

langster

For comfort, full suspension.

vorsprung

buggieboy wrote:

for comfort carbon or steel :?

Titanium

waterford123

Before writing off steel off as the material of the past, if you ever get the chance to ride a Waterford S22 or 33 then I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy the experience. But as the 2nd post points out it's got to fit right.

harveyg77

I have an Orange R8, which is a steel framed hardtail.

I went to the shop on a Trek 8000 which was razor sharp, harsh and light. Came home on the R8 which felt 'different' in a way I could only describe as smoother. Having now ridden the R8 some more I can say she is superb.

I have now added Easton carbon bars and a SDG carbon I-beam post and Belle-Air saddle. The carbon post has, if anything, detracted from the ride. This is because it flexes a lot and you 'feel' it kick back as it returns from bending to absorb an undulation in the trail. The saddle is comfy, yet I fitted the same saddle to my Epic with a larger diameter carbon i-beam post and the saddle absolutely crippled me, so I guess the stiffness of the saddle needs offsetting with more post flex.

Anyway I digress, the Trek 8000 was never comfy, but it was light and fast, it encouraged you to attack the trail and ride flat out. It felt fast and nimble, it had a longer stem and flat bars.
The R8 always feels nice and smooth to ride, it feels less twitchy than the Trek, which I put down to the shorter stem, Fox F32 (I prefer Fox to Rock-Shox) and riser bars. Though its heavier (mine is a Medium and weights 26.2 lbs) it still encourages you to attack climbs and it still descends nicely. Overall, I would take a steel frame over an Aluminium frame every time, based on my experiences.
My road bike is a carbon framed Scott and feels lovely, so I would suggest a good carbon framed bie will ride very nicely too.

But its all very subjective and ones mans pleasure is anothers pain. You're going to have to down select a few bikes which seem to have a good reputation, VFM, or whatever criteria you have and then ride them.

Good luck,
Harvey

Keezey

It really is just as simple as finding the bike, not the material that is the most comfortable for you...

Carbon melts when it gets wet. So go with steel.

P.S. "Pokerface" are you retarded.?

Scott elite pro
Scott Genius mc30 carbon

kafkathedog

Keezey wrote:

.
P.S. "Pokerface" are you retarded.?

Whoosh

22-48

Another steel Waterford 33 rider here, quite simply the comfiest/best handling bike i have ever owned, oh and its light and fast. I have ridden many of the best carbon frames and they cannot come close.

wicked

22-48 wrote:

Another steel Waterford 33 rider here, quite simply the comfiest/best handling bike i have ever owned, oh and its light and fast. I have ridden many of the best carbon frames and they cannot come close.

This post is useless without pics!

springtide9

Pokerface wrote:

Carbon melts when it gets wet. So go with steel.

It's a good job they don't make any Formula 1 car bits from carbon.
I'm sure those F1 drivers wouldn't want to risk their lives driving at 200mph in an ice lolly LOL

cougie

Cal_Stewart wrote:

just about to get a new training bike, i've gone for steel for fit (custom) and for lifescan. You can get steel repair a lot easyer than carbon. Plus cost.

There are places that fix carbon. Mind you - half the time its not really economical to get your steel frame repaired - especially if its just a training frame.

waterford123

wicked wrote:

22-48 wrote:

Another steel Waterford 33 rider here, quite simply the comfiest/best handling bike i have ever owned, oh and its light and fast. I have ridden many of the best carbon frames and they cannot come close.

This post is useless without pics!

Why?

Gavin Cook

Bar Shaker wrote:

Steel will never achieve the engineering properties of carbon.

What are modern aircraft made from?

The future is black. The future is carbon.

The fuselage are made from 6061-T6 alloy !! with a few small components here and there made from Carbon.

Pokerface

Keezey wrote:

It really is just as simple as finding the bike, not the material that is the most comfortable for you...

Carbon melts when it gets wet. So go with steel.

P.S. "Pokerface" are you retarded.?

NO, but you clearly are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm

Chris James

Gavin Cook wrote:

Bar Shaker wrote:

Steel will never achieve the engineering properties of carbon.

What are modern aircraft made from?

The future is black. The future is carbon.

The fuselage are made from 6061-T6 alloy !! with a few small components here and there made from Carbon.

With steel and titanium fasteners too.

Basically they are made from just about every material!

Anonymous

Carbon bikes snap if you mix components from Shimano and Campagnolo. The effect can be prevented if you use a Sram item somewhere though.

Wheelspinner

I find that the main benefit from a carbon frame is I don't need to wear the tinfoil cap under my helmet anymore, as the material doesn't seem to pick up the signals like a steel one does and transmit them through the bars.

But only if the carbon is uni-directional. That pretty woven stuff on the surface of some carbon frames is actually super-conductive Litz wires. V-e-r-y B-a-d.....

And don't get me started on the Di2 groupset from the Shomina Mind Control Ninjas Company - that "battery" pack is actually an amplifier and transmitter all in one. It reads your thoughts through the shifter buttons and sends them to Lance Armstrong's PR company to be used as Twitter Feed.

springtide9

NapoleonD wrote:

Carbon bikes snap if you mix components from Shimano and Campagnolo. The effect can be prevented if you use a Sram item somewhere though.

LOL -

I usually have just a six word statement.

Aluminium sucks! Carbon and Titanium rocks!

Truly, aluminium is just soooooo 1990s. Even modern aeroplane manufactures are ditching ali alloy for CF in their 'modern' designs. LOL

Lightrweight alloy use to be our dream in the 90's, but now every Halfords is full of bikes made out of this crap.

Move on and get with it... even steel is now seen a a 'premium' over ali

PS: you are right - SRAM is the cure for avoiding 'modern' materials

Anonymous

Yet still I covet a particular couple of aluminium bikes...

springtide9

NapoleonD wrote:

Yet still I covet a particular couple of aluminium bikes...

But I bet you state how well designed they are and the fact you'd never guess its made from ali.

Also own a ali MTB - but it does feel pretty flexi - but that might be the SRAM FS LOL

Wheelspinner

springtide9 wrote:

Aluminium sucks! Carbon and Titanium rocks!

Truly, aluminium is just soooooo 1990s.

Lightrweight alloy use to be our dream in the 90's, but now every Halfords is full of bikes made out of this crap.

So it would seem is your shed. Commencal Super 4 is made from what material again?

springtide9

Wheelspinner wrote:

springtide9 wrote:

Aluminium sucks! Carbon and Titanium rocks!

Truly, aluminium is just soooooo 1990s.

Lightrweight alloy use to be our dream in the 90's, but now every Halfords is full of bikes made out of this crap.

So it would seem is your shed. Commencal Super 4 is made from what material again?

Good point. Yep, I still regret I didn't spend the extra on the CF version. It' was roughly 1kg lighter, and there were no reports of cracked frames with the CF version (unlike the alloy version)... unfortunately I got the alloy frame for £650 (the shock was £300).. so it was a hard decision to pay £1250 for the CF version.... but I wish I had.

Any more questions ??.. got a CF Super 4 in CF you'd like to swap for an alloy version??? please gert in touch and we can do a deal..???