RB1-luvr

^^ heck ya!

mstateglfr 

Stunned- I figured the Gunnar would be the Caddy.

Koyote

Yeah, you would think so. But I think the Gunnar uses pretty thick-walled tubing (it's heavier than I'd anticipated), and it has a very stout Enve fork. It rides well with Resolutes (which puff up to about 44mm wide) and a bit harsher with 38s or 40s.

mstateglfr 

Yeah, Ive read the couple of Enve gravel forks are very stiff/stout.

My current gravel frame is steel, a Fairlight Secan, which I love for the geometry. I knew the weight before buying, so that wasnt a surprise, but its definitely not light due to having to pass fatigue testing. The 853 main triangle is so thick and strong it could survive being run over by a monster truck. I chose it ultimately for geometry and it fits like a glove, but I also got it to try out the 44mm head tube and tapered fork. My view on that is I prefer my older gravel frame with a 1 1/8 head tube and steel fork that seems to flex more. Ends up I really dont need some extremely stiff front end. It isnt uncomfortable, but I also dont think I benefit from it.
Just something I notice between the two frames- the AC is a 1 1/8 steel and the Gunnar is 44mm.

Koyote

Yeah, I've never heard anyone complain of a 1&1/8 steel headtube being flexy, so I think some of these framebuilders are going a bit too far.

rekmeyata

Yup, that was about what it felt like! When I first test rode the bike I thought, ok it's a bit stiff but I'll be ok, nope, the longer I spent on the saddle the more beat up I became, much quicker than my other steel bikes I had at the time. The odd thing too was that scandium was also being marketed as more comfortable to ride than aluminum, if that was true, then aluminum had to really suck, but from people I spoke to that had rode both, and from test rides I had that wasn't true, aluminum was more comfortable than scandium, but at the time I wanted a very lightweight bike, and that bike weighed about as much or as much as a high-end CF bike, around 15 pounds, I can't recall the exact weight, but it was in that neighborhood.

Scandium was also tooted as being the most durable frame material you could buy, no, not even close, in fact it turned out to be brittle, a lot of people had problems with those scandium frames cracking from whatever manufacturer was making them, Ridley must have discovered it after they sold a bunch and decided not to pay warranty claims on them so they used the fatigue loophole that are in all frame warranties regardless of frame material, or manufacturer, or the duration of the warranty even lifetime warranties, they all have that exclusion. Ridley did offer me a replacement frame at wholesale cost instead of retail, but that wasn't that huge of a discount, and being that it cracked so quickly I sure wasn't going to spend the money only to watch the same thing happen later, plus I didn't want the rough ride anymore anyways. The bike shop felt bad about what happen but they were powerless, they offered me if I took the wholesale frame free parts exchange from the old to the new, which was cool, but the whole idea of another scandium frame from Ridley with that awful ride quality left a very bitter taste in my mouth.

Rolla

Here's an interesting look at Scandium: https://www.bikeblogordie.com/2016/1...dium-bike.html

"Any time you ride a high-quality aluminum racing frame made of welded 7005 series aluminum, you're probably riding on a little scandium. A lot of 6061 grade aluminums use scandium too."

rekmeyata

Interesting information. I doubt Ridley was using some fake tubeset and thus the problems, if I bought the bike from some Asian site then yeah, but it was at a Ridley dealership and both the bike shop and I were in contact with Ridley, the frame got sent back to Ridley as well, so that one was not a fake.

As far as the strength goes, I would say that it probably was strong when used in military applications, but on a bike frame not so much, they're not going to use military grade materials on a bike frame.

Comfort wise, some people like a bone jarring ride, but most do not.

Lastly I have no idea what percentage of the frame that Ridley had was scandium and what percentage was AL, it wasn't something that was noted on the frame material sticker attached to the frame. So I have zero clue what that was, but I can only assume that if they are selling the bike as a scandium frame material that it "should" have more scandium in it than a standard AL frame, at least that's what I would think. I do know that the bike I had was lighter than an AL bike from Cannondale or Klien at the same price point, about a pound lighter if memory serves me correctly. The article doesn't say what percentage of scandium is "a little" scandium vs how much did a scandium frame have. I knew from what I read back then that there was no such thing as pure scandium frames, but I found out later that the higher the percentage of scandium that there was in the AL the more brittle the frame became, so that could be the reason for the crack at the headtube on the Ridley, they simply used to much scandium, or perhaps a combination of too much scandium and too thin of walls to reduce weight.

Like I said, there were reports back then, and you can find reports today on the internet about scandium frames cracking, most of those were at weld areas, mine was at the top of the head tube and came down about 1/2 an inch from the headset. Not sure how common that type of crack I had was, or why it happened, the only thing I can think of is that there was some sort of either workmanship or materials issue, something that Ridley denied.

The long story was that Ridley first tried to say I crashed the bike, but the bike shop said the bike had never been in an accident, Ridley then sent their marketing rep in who looked at the Ridley before it was taken apart and took photos of everything, even he said it looked "odd"; after Ridley saw everything changed their mind and said it was fatigue, and refused to admit it was either poor material or poor workmanship. This process took about 8 months from what I can recall to get resolved. A lawyer I spoke to said the cost for him to pursue the case would cost a lot more than the bike was worth. The following year the bike shop stopped selling Ridley bikes, they said it was due to my situation, but who knows if that was really the reason, less than 5 years after that the shop was out of business, so there could have been some other reason they dropped Ridley, or Ridley dropped them.

Viich

I bought a comfort bike cheap once, a giant cypress.

It was too small for me by their size chart, but felt like a giant brick and about 3 sizes too big (I'm 6', typically ride a 58 road bike, was on a medium), I think it's just not the geometry for me.

Most every other bike I've had I've been able to get into a window for me - road bikes, BMX bikes, cyclocross, fatbikes......
I did eventually sell a 56 Allez as I just prefer the slightly larger frame, but it was okay, just not quite as good.

rsbob 

Thought I had made a BIG mistake buying a bike online during the pandemic. Ended up going to a bike fitter, and it helped but still had tremendous shoulder pain. Couldn’t get the seat height right either. So three successively short stems later, raising the stack height and adjusting the saddle height, I am happy. Took about a year to dial everything in - which was waaaay toooo long.

Miele Man

Around 1990 I bought a black Cannondale road bike with 27" x 1&1/4" tires. That thing was very punishing to ride. I was out on a 60 km (40 miles) ride and turned around less than halfway into that ride because ever time I rode over a transverse crack in the road it felt like Mohammed Ali was punching me in the kidneys. I honestly thought that I was going to have to walk the bike home.

I was gong to put 700C x 40mm wheels and tires on it but the 40mm tires rubbed the chainstays. I sold that bike and used my MIELE Tange Infinity bike instead.

Cheers

rydabent

What people have to realize a bike is a machine. It doesnt love you, or it doesnt hate you, it is just a machine. Take several bikes out on a trial ride, and hopefully pick the one that feels the best to you. THEN realize since it is just a machine YOU will have to accommodate yourself to the machine.

Jean_TX

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The steel bikes I’ve owned (a Raleigh mountain bike and a DiamondBack road bike) required multiple stems, bars, and seatposts to get relatively pain free, but they still were not comfortable to ride. The one aluminum bike I have owned (a Klein mountain bike) also required changing stems and seatpost but it is fairly comfortable to ride. The problem with each of these three bikes was/is that if the saddle height and setback were set properly, the top tube was essentially too long.

I have only had one bike that actually fit me perfectly “out of the box” – a Specialized Ruby Elite carbon fiber bike that is/was supposedly designed with women in mind (i.e., designed for “longer leg length vs. torso & arm length” bodies). It is blissfully comfortable.

Jean

Rolla

Yes, this describes my situation. A shorter stem helps (as does a riser bar), but those compromise some of the handling characteristics.