Bicycle frame material statistics
All this talk about this or that material being better or worse is rather incomplete at this time because failure rates for all methods of bicycle frame, fork, and component failures are not readily available anywhere that I have searched. There is quite a bit of suing going on right now concerning carbon frame and fork failures that injured or killed people. The major bicycle manufacturers have shielded themselves from being sued through all kinds of proxy or subsidiary corporations that have left consumers in many nations no recourse for poor or hurtful bicycles. This is finally being adjudicated and the legal systems in a couple of countries are forcing a public reckoning concerning manufacturing/engineering of bicycles. I don't have to go far in these forums to find people talking about all kinds of broken aluminum and carbon components. However steel also breaks but steel is not being used by the vast majority of competitive cyclists any more so breakage rates are probably very low. I believe competitive cyclists are the main users of high end carbon/aluminum road and mountain bicycles. By competitive I mean racing in organized races or riding in a racing manner with other fit and competitive people. A lot of low end aluminum and steel bicycles are sold at the Target/Walmart's in our country and I see them in daily use. I don't know how well they hold up. Hard to get hard data about this. I've come to believe that in the real world bicycles made of steel are hardy survivors of falling down, fell over and hit the concrete step, crashed and rode bicycle away types of incidents. Carbon and modern aluminum bicycle materials are much superior to steel in stress tests yet appear to have a harder time surviving the real world of hard knocks. I'd just love to see honest bicycle industry statistics on how these various materials hold up out in "real" life. I'm not pro carbon or aluminum or steel or bamboo or any other material. I just want honest objective quantification of what is available and how well it holds up with use.