Originally Posted by
armstrong101
Hi folks
Wondering if anyone recalls this "aberration" era. A steel bike with a stock aluminum fork would (AFAIK) never be marketed today. But it was for a time. My first real high end road bike (bought it used) was a Specialized Allez Pro from 1994. Tricolour STI. Steel tubes, aluminum fork.
At the time, the fork was advertised as being "lighter" and to actually be vibration damping compared to steel(!). Given aluminum's current reputation for harshness, no one would ever "upgrade" their steel fork for an aluminum one to give a softer ride, but at the time, aluminum's harsh characteristics weren't yet widely known. It was simply considered a newer/lighter/better material found on higher-end bikes in a world of full of steel bikes.
In a sense, the alu fork "upgrade" was kinda the entry into "better tubing", the way modern entry-race alum bikes have carbon forks - they would be for people who didn't shell out for an all-aluminum (now all-carbon) frameset. But alum's characteristics soon trickled out, and then you couldn't advertise it as a vibration-damping material, and hence such bikes were no longer designed/marketed.
Is what I just said all true? I do know steelframe/alumfork existed - I'm just guessing the era was very short lived because it simply didn't make sense. Anyone else have a take on this?
"Given aluminum's current reputation for harshness, no one would ever "upgrade" their steel fork for an aluminum one to give a softer ride, but at the time, aluminum's harsh characteristics weren't yet widely known."
I'm not quite sure where to start here. Aluminum is considerably less stiff than steel. This has been common knowledge a long time. Sophomore engineering As a fork with cross section remotely close to steel, it is a lot more flexible. What made aluminum famous as a "stiff" frame material was the huge diameters used for the tubes. Again, not "new" knowledge. I did a quick ride on an early Klein in 1976. I couldn't have flexed that bike at twice my weight and strength.
I owned a Lambert. That fork was not stiff. Very comfortable on rough roads. The 1990s aluminum forks I saw weren't a lot thicker so obviously also not very stiff.
Edit: Oops. Guilty of answering an ancient post.