Steel > CF: Benefits? - Page 2

you will be amazed how far each year technology moves on,,,,, acceleration is the first notice, speed increase, power for weight increase are significant.. best times on my cincelli / record times for 100miles were around the 4hour 30 min mark when a good elite junoir rider...and 4 hr 50 as a vet on same bike vs my current bianchi and Eurus wheels best time is 4hr 13 min as a vet. Wheels and Weight are the 2 most improvements.

Dude...update the steel!!!!

Look out! You can't go using that word around here without referencing at least 3 peer-reviewed published research articles to support it

lol!!!!

Regarding fit, most old bikes are tall and have a short top tube vs a newer bike.

The rules of bike fit are not etched in stone. Why not try some online fit calculators to see what they tell you? Then you'll know what the rough, general guidelines say.

If you prefer a longer top tube, you can find some older makes which had a longer fit. Bridgestones were longer than typical. French bikes typically came with either a square fit (top and seat tube same length) or were actually longer in the top tube than the seat tube.

Unfortunately, the Peugeot PX10 is currently in favor by fixie hipsters.

Another factor affecting fit and ride comfort is the bar length. The Nitto Noodle bar is available in 44, 46, and 48cm widths. The width may affect how much shock is transmitted to your palms. I like the shape of the thing too. The drops are not angled down as much, so you can ride either the drops or the section of bar above them comfortably. Places which carry them are also likely to have the Nitto stems which are available in various lengths and have a vintage look.

I recently switched from a Lemond Zurich steel frame to a Giant TCR carbon frame. What stood out most to me was the carbon seemed to take the edge off the bumps in the road a little better than the steel frame. One thing to take into consideration though is that after a wreck, if you crack a carbon frame you'll need to buy a new frame whereas steel seems to be a little stonger and can probably be bent slightly back into submission.

Carbon looks cool though!

First, CF can be repaired. Calfee offers the service. Second, you only need to consider trashing a CF part, after a crash, if it is damaged. CF frames survive crashes a lot.

__________________
Sex is horrid
Pain is Fun
I cut my fingers off
One by one

I had the chance to check out an Isaac Pascal Carbon frame a few weeks back. The darned thing makes a Cannondale seen like a Vitus 979 with an unbonded bottom bracket shell but mystically feels pretty comfy AND doesn't handle like a track bike on crystal meth...

The downtube is so fat that it takes 1/2 a second for light to travel around it. Nomads have spent eons searching for 'the other side...' It is bigger than God and second only in size of known large objects in the five known universes to my beer gut.

Whether I'd go any faster on it is debatable, but I know what I'd rather be riding going up a sizeable hill.

that's how steel can look like in the 21 century !

Even better:

__________________
Sex is horrid
Pain is Fun
I cut my fingers off
One by one

No, there wouldn't be a difference between a thirty year old steel bike and a new carbon bike. As we all know, bicycle design and manufacturing technology hit a peak in 1980 and the industry has only made slower bikes year after year since then.

Amen, brother!

__________________
Mark

So, where can I order this baby?