Originally Posted by
kommisar
I've got a old schwinn mountain bike with chrome-moly main tubes. I assume the stays and fork are hiten. Would getting a better frame with chrome-moly fork and stays make it ride significantly different? Would the cantilever brakes work better on chrome-moly stays?
(gets out popcorn)
In my assessment, it might be difficult to notice any performance difference in terms of stiffness, ride quality, or brake performance (but you're getting a reply from someone who rode an all-hi-ten frame as his primary bike for decades). A frame with chromoly or mang-moly stays would likely be lighter - one recent example from my experience was a Barracuda frame with all thin-wall Tange chromoly tubing was 35% lighter than an identical-sized frame using thicker chromoly main tubes and hi-ten stays.
If you happen into a light all-chromoly frame with similar geometry in good condition and have the skills, time, and patience to swap over all the components, you might be happier, perhaps because of weight savings or just because many human brains associate "new" with "better". Or you might be less happy. No guarantees.