Trakhak

Whenever this topic comes up, I remember a big guy (a tall weightlifter, well over 250 pounds) coming into the bike shop in 1985 who complained that every bike he'd ridden lately felt like "over-cooked spaghetti." Figuring that an aluminum bike might do the job for him, I put him on a Cannondale and sent him out the door for a test ride. He came back 15 minutes later and said, "Sold."

Four or five months later, when he came in for his free tune-up, he told me, "You get any other big guys in here, send them to me. I'll tell them to buy a Cannondale."

Steel bikes are still fine---I have Reynolds 531 and 853 bikes collecting dust in the basement that I keep meaning to clean up so that I can ride them once in a while---but I love my aluminum bikes. Why steel? My guess is internet-driven retro cachet, like vinyl versus digital and tubes versus transistors.