Cr-Mo

marcusww

Chrome moly.

Who is moly? :shock:

declan1

It's Chromium and Molybdenum.

Monty Dog

One step-up from gas-pipe too

Bar Shaker

Rated in kg/m, like steel beams.

Even the beard and sandals brigade don't touch it.

rolf_f

Perfectly respectable depending on the form of it eg Reynolds 501 is made of it - double butted too. A step down from 531 but certainly not the abomination the above are implying. You can get some lovely 501 frames and you'd probably struggle to tell the difference.

imposter2.0

Bar Shaker wrote:

Rated in kg/m, like steel beams.

or indeed like any other steel product...

iPete

Thread highjack but is "Dedacciai SAT 14.5 triple-butted steel" considered good?!

Monty Dog

It's not just the material, but what they do to it to turn it into a bike frame. Someone mentioned Reynolds 501 - but the vast majority of 501 frames are only the three main frame tubes - the rest still being cheapo hi-tensile which is heavy and dead-feeling. If the tubes are butted and heat-treated, then you're benefitting from thinner' lighter tubes make from stronger materials which should give a livelier ride. I've ridden steel-frame bikes that can either be dead and 'heavy' or light and responsive - a lot depends on the weight of the rider too. At 60kg, I find old, skinny Columbus SL frames give a nice ride whereas a 90kg rider would find them too whippy.