Stainless Steel - new wonder material?

dodgy

Well that's what this page is basically hinting at, just wondering what we all thought of Stainless Steel as a material for road bikes?

http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/toughe ... h-at-nahbs

I can't see the point myself, all the characteristics they talk about are already covered by other materials?

Berk Bonebonce

Stainless steel tube sets have been available on the market for a few years now, I believe both Reynolds and Dedaccai produce them, and probably Columbus too.

sungod

i've got a stainless steel bike, cinelli xcr (columbus tubes)

about 7.8kg at the moment, it's lovely to ride and remains very very shiny in spite of the dire weather of the last few months

dodgy

Nice, very nice. Have you ridden Titanium? If so, comparison?

sungod

dodgy wrote:

Nice, very nice. Have you ridden Titanium? If so, comparison?

i've not ridden a ti frame

didn't want cf for this bike, and i'd narrowed things down to xcr or ti, then i saw an xcr in the shop and was smitten by the looks and the lightness for a steel bike

took about 6 months for cinelli to build the frame though, milan seems to operate on a different timescale!

keef66

Mother of God! How tall are you??

That head tube looks longer than my seat tube! (although I am a midget)

sungod

a smidge over 6'2" and leggy with it, not as flexible as i used to be either, it all combines to put me quite a way above the ground

Heckler1974

I was always under the impression that adding chromium to steel made it brittle, which is why steel blades, for example, that will undergo stress and are not just for display tend not to be stainless steel. Having said that I suppose whilst a sword will flex significantly in use so brittleness is an issue, a bike frame will flex but not so much.

Interesting from a metalurgical point of view how they juggled the mix.....

giant_man

Columbus xcr is a wonderful material, feels fantastic. Livelier than titanium too.

Ti feels (to me) dead in comparison.

fossyant

That KVA stainless isn't as 'tough' as 953. 1400 MPA vs 2000 MPA for 953.

Very tempted to get a custom build in it next time I get a new road bike.

ugo.santalucia

Heckler1974 wrote:

I was always under the impression that adding chromium to steel made it brittle, which is why steel blades, for example, that will undergo stress and are not just for display tend not to be stainless steel. Having said that I suppose whilst a sword will flex significantly in use so brittleness is an issue, a bike frame will flex but not so much.

Interesting from a metalurgical point of view how they juggled the mix.....

Maraging steels (carbon free) have been used in landing gear for a long time. Only recently technological advances have allowed these steels high in Chromium and Nickel to be drawn in thin tubes and welded succesfully.

flanners1

I am lusting over the Milani 'Puro'

http://www.milanicycles.com/index.php?l ... #go:cycles

Carlos_SC

I'm bringing in a couple of KVA frames from the US at the moment, they are being built as I speak by who I am confidant is a top quality builder. If they are as good as they seem (and look!) then I'll be investing a lot into them over here.
I'm convinced that it could well be a 'wonder material'! I'm a big fan of steel anyway, but this steel seems to offer the pluses of steel and the pluses of Ti together...can you really go wrong with that?!
I'm not here for a blatant plug but I do want to convince people that steel is the way to go, so if anyone wants to take one for a spin, let me know
Either way, I'm pretty sure we'll be hearing a lot more about this material in the near future

tenor

The KVA butted tubes are typically 0.7-0.4-0.7mm wall thickness, which makes them a little thicker than Deda' eom 16.5 or Columbus Spirit.
The Reynolds 953 and Columbus XCR are drawn a little thinner and so could be built into a slightly lighter frame. For any given tube diameter +weight and frame geometry any of the above should ride the same.
It would be useful to know from the metalurgists out there whether it would be possible to weld stainless rear triangle (or just chain stays and dropouts) to an otherwise normal steel; XCR rear to Spirit main triangle, for instance.
This would provide improved durability and a little sparkle to an otherwise painted frame.

Carlos_SC

The framebuilder I'm in contact with is doing similar to this at the moment. The other way around though! KVA aren't doing MTB tuning for a while, and to create an MTB frame, he is using lugs to join a stainless KVA mainframe to a standard painted steel rear end (the current KVA seems fine for MTB use but can't do MTB rear triangles due to the bent stays).
I've seen a pic of this done by someone else and it looks greeeaaat
So not weldable but lugs can be used

Clank

tenor wrote:

It would be useful to know from the metalurgists out there whether it would be possible to weld stainless rear triangle (or just chain stays and dropouts) to an otherwise normal steel; XCR rear to Spirit main triangle, for instance.

Easy - just need the right wire to make sure there's a compatible weld metal (it's tubular so you need the bulk of the fillet to spread the loading). No reason it shoudln't come out beautifully.

I've done stainless to plain carbons in sheet stock without a filler for a production app (but used a laser).

(/geek)