Is steel still real?
Is steel still real?
Nothing much to talk about, it’s just a picture of my steel road bike. It’s not the fastest, nor the lightest, the most aerodynamic, but it sure does put a wide grin on my stupid-ass face.
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There are certainly still scenarios where steel is the best option, but it's fairly niche these days imo. A long distance touring rig, or some real backcountry stuff, for instance. For road, I'd only go back to metal due to price concerns. For city riding, I don't ride carbon due to theft concerns.
I think it's become a niche option because of the price. Higher end steel tubing is not cheap these days, and a good quality steel frame can cost about the same as a good carbon fibre frame. And don't get me started on Titanium...
ELI5, why do steel bikes cost that much? I thought carbon cost way more because of how labour intensive it is.
Making a steel frame is also labour intensive, it's not just welding together a bunch of tubes. First, those tubes are expensive. They're not just metal pipes (look up Reynolds 725, 853, 953 tubes or equivalent products from Columbus or Tange).
Then there's the frame building process, any frame worth it's money will use double or triple butted tubes (the thickness of a tube wall varies along the length of the tube for compliance and weight saving reasons).
Then there's the economy of scale. Steel frames are a bit niche right now and are made in small numbers. Some of the fancier ones are produced in the EU or the US, which raises the costs by quite a lot.
But yeah, it would be nice if they were a bit less expensive.