Originally Posted by
SpedFast
Those were my first considerations too until I got really serious and started seeing all the frame material options out there. Then I got confused. I've been researching them for a while now and only getting more confused. My steel bikes are heavy but durable. I want something lighter. My aluminum bikes are lighter and still durable and a good option. Then I find guys that really swear by titanium for very legit reasons. Confused.
You get confused because it's not so much the frame material that makes a bike, but how well that bike fits your intended needs.
All the frame materials you've mentioned have been used with great success since before the turn of the century. There have been some few spectacular failures for all of those materials. Whether one material has more tensile strength or is more ductile or has another differing quality is of not really a factor for these materials as the designers, engineers and builders have shown that they can build some excellent bikes with those materials.
All you have to do is find the bike that matches what you want and need in a bike.
If you get to worrying too much about material then you might never find the bike that's right for you. You might be setting your self up for a endless quest for your imagined holy grail. I'd actually done that for many years when I was blinded by my "steel is real" mentality. It kept me from buying a new bike for quite a few years.