Aluminum best for Crit. Racing
- Thread starter Jcyclist
- Start date
I like aluminum for crits, stiff, and cheap. I've been racing for two full seasons now, and only crashed once while racing. Nothing happened to the frame, and it wasn't a major crash. But Crits are fast, and tight and people go down. I find most people don't race on a top of the line bike if they do crits, something made of aluminum and a 105/ultegra (or campy equivalent) mix gets the job done and is replaceable if it gets banged up. Save the carbon or expensive ti bike for training.
probably better since the replacement cost in the event of a crash is less. I've been racing crits for the past 4 years in Colorado and I see alot of aluminum or aluminum/carbon stay frames. of course many choose carbon or their team has a frame sponsor that provides carbon frames.Jcyclist said:
If you go with an aluminum frame, I'd try to go higher end. I know Pinarello makes some pretty high end aluminum. Reason for this is because cheap aluminum is very flexy and not stiff. If riding crits you want your bike as stiff as possible so I'd go with carbon personally, but if you go with aluminum, I'd go pretty high end.
bobbyOCR said:That ends up quite ironic. You have your expensive race bike which you train on, and your cheaper training bike which you race on.
True, but my average crit is less than 20 miles. I race 2 or 3 times a month--so that's only about 60 miles a month on my Cannondale CAAD 5 (aluminum) crit bike.
I train about 650 miles a month on my Litespeed Classic (titanium). So I'm actually spending the majority of my riding time on my good bike.
Bob
I totally agree with lex, i am putting way more miles on my "training bike" so lets make that the most comfortable smooth ride i can. So carbon it is for training. My race bike is the aluminum version of the carbon bike (both giant tcr's), and the training bike has DA on it, while the race bike has got a mix of mid range campy stuff. I race about 15-20 times a year, a few of those are TT's, so lets say 15 races a year on the aluminum bike at an average of 40 miles is only 600 miles a year on that bike. I have had big weeks (well 10 day camps) where i've done that many miles in training. Stiff is key with Aluminum, so its like they say, stiff, cheap, light, you can only pick two. I don't think you have to break the bank with AL $500 can get you a nice stiff frame perfect for crits. Keep an eye out on Ebay and you'll find even cheaper.
I race and train on steel, but it's not an old lugged frame from the 80's but a rather stiff and light dedacciai 16.5 OEM model. I have an older aluminum bike that's my bad weather trainer, but the steel model is just as fast (faster actually). One factor with crits (which are the majority of my races), is you don't pay a weight penalty. Make sure the wheels, bars and stem are rock solid and stay away from the true weightweenie stuff. Steel is fairly repairable as well just in case (knock knock..).Jcyclist said:
Similar threads
