Originally Posted by cyccommute

Generally, it is a dig at aluminum. In the minds of the Holy Steel Warriors, aluminum...the metal of the infidel...is soft, weak, and “shatters at the slightest impact” or, in the bicycle vernacular, “it asplodes”. It is not even worthy of the title “metal” in their eyes...even as those self same Holy Steel Warriors take weight off the steel by using aluminum in other critical places.

In a less “religious” context, it was coined back when aluminum bikes started to come on the market to disparage aluminum. It’s meant in the manner as “real bicyclist don’t ride aluminum”. The saying is likely 40 years old by now and is the cry of people who have seen the market share of steel bicycles erode to the point of being a blip in the bicycle market. At this point it is a nostalgia sentiment.