Cyclist0108

It looks like Magnesium bike frames are back:


VAAST




There was an Israeli company that made a racing bike a few years ago, reviewed by Bikesnob, but he didn't really say anything useful.

Is this a viable frame material, or will it just oxidize or explode into flame?

mstateglfr 

Ha, i just read about this bike about 30min ago because of a pushed article.
https://cyclingtips.com/2020/11/vaas...es-a-comeback/

The dropped chainstay yoke is visually brutal, and its apparently poorly designed as well since the company is going to change the design during production.
The frame material is neat- they seem to have put a ton of effort into figuring out how to force a corrosive product into a relatively inert product.

Its light, which is neat, but for $2500, I would buy a bunch of other bikes.

Cyclist0108

I saw it on Jensen. I just added a link to the Bike Snob review of the Segal.

mstateglfr
Good, critical review. Thanks for posing it.

jadocs

Not sure if it's this bike, but I remember a Mg bike not too long ago that were looking for ambassadors. I believe a bike was sent to two people on this forum. It came in a road and cross version. I have not heard any update from those individuals.

Branko D

Can't say it's a particularly appealing bike and the chainstay is visually, er, not quite right.

Also, if I'm buying a bike with a CF fork, don't see why the rest of it wouldn't be CF, too. That turns me off titanium and most modern steel roadbikes, too.

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Cyclist0108

I have a modern steel (custom) road bike with carbon fork, seat post, bars, stem. It actually works well (and looks good) synergistically.

But you are right about this one.

Cyclist0108

[double post]

79pmooney

Funny,I read the 1984 interview with Tom Kellog, Gary Klein and Jim Redcay last night. Klein said then that bicycles were in the third "era". First era - push bikes. Second era- pedals and the high wheelers. Third era- safety bikes - diamond frames and chain/shaft driven drive trains. That he had developed a new tubing for the closing chapter of the third era. That further evolution in metals, composites and ceramics were just more of the end of that era.

Magnesium -more tweaks to push this era a little longer. (The first two eras lasted about 15 years each, This one has gone on 140 years. Will any of us live to see the next?)

I took a spin on professor David Wilson's recumbent 44 years ago. Short wheelbase, under the knees steering, semi-reclined position, Easy to ride, completely natural first time and obviously fast. I rode with the professor a few times as he commuted home and I headed out on training rides. Yes, I always caught him from behind, chatted and left him but he was a middle aged professor and I was a mid 20s bike racer. He was one of the few non-racers fast enough for me to condescend to slow to. And that bike had commuter clincher wheels and nothing special parts. But sew-ups and racing equipment and that recumbent would have been a rocket. I knew that with my spin around the parking lot.

Now with this magnesium for the frame of that recumbent, plus race worthy gear; that 1976 bike would be an all-world fast road bike today, just not allowed to race. (I say this and I will not be a convert until I lose my balance because I love "the dance"; the out of the saddle climb. I live for it. Maybe the fourth era will be a design that dances. I can hope.)

Ben

Mulberry20

Good engineering dictates the best material for each part not the same material for each part.

Litespud

Possibly because the bike burst into flames and incinerated them.....

Branko D

Yes, that's why I ride CF bikes!

Darth Lefty 

I thought magnesium was usually for castings. It’s used for the lowers of suspension forks, for example.

The bike will not burst into flames but the people who make it are perhaps in more danger than usual.

hsuBM

Another red frame with black wheels and squeak brakes. I have one. It’s pretty. It squeaks when there’s rain. They can be made out of anything, including maple or mahogany.

I’m curious what the alloy actually is, but Allite (understandably so) is tight lipped about it. It might just be 88% Al, 4% Zn, 3% Cu, and 4.9% Mg... just a high Mg content version of 7075. It might be >60% Mg.

Allite’s site paints a portrait (to my eyes) of wishful thinking of it being applicable for anything more than the teensiest marginal gains outside of military/aerospace. [edit] It possibly would be great for cellphone and tablet chassis & back covers.

I’m only academically curious, though. With regard to bikes, I’m pretty happy with my old steel frames. Reynolds got it right decades ago AFAIC. Going any further is like trying to invent a better Oreo.

bblair

I think I need one. Not because it is the greatest thing ever, but because in my quest to have a bike from every material. Hit the cycle, so to speak.

mstateglfr 

Oreo just declared they are releasing a gluten free version soon and clearly that is inventing a better Oreo for our celiac GF free house.
...i fully get your actual point, for the record.

Gresp15C

44 years is a long time for a new technology to catch on if it's a clear improvement. How long did it take for the safety bike to displace the pennyfarthing?

rydabent

There are one piece cast Mg frames. They look very logical. Just one big squirt, and there you are a bike frame, and almost no manual labor what so ever.

the sci guy 

Hey everyone - someone in the Cyclocross/Gravel forum pointed me over here because they saw this thread.

So, I'm one of those brand ambassadors jadocs mentioned above. I've been riding my A/1 for about 4 months. It's my first gravel bike and so far I am loving it.
I also read the review yesterday that mstateglfr posted and thought it was real good critical review - I agreed with a lot of it.

My thoughts on the bike so far:

1) the frame itself is real nice. It's lightweight and ride quality so far has been excellent IMO. My size small with pedals and everything weighed in around 19 lbs.
2) me, nor the bike have spontaneously combusted yet
3) I have no experienced the paint/chainslap issue on the dropped stay as of yet (that was pointed out in that article)
4) agree with the article about the internal cable routing system - the rubber stoppers are not the best. hopefully this is rectified in future iterations.
5) I don't have the issue with the cables rubbing on the front of the headtube because of how I arranged the cables when I moved/swapped the hoods/bars, etc. I'll try to get a pic of that specifically later
6) the dropped chainstay initially caught me off guard as well but honestly i don't even see it anymore. I also think it looks better than say, the way Allied Bikes did it with their version: https://alliedcycleworks.com/collections/able
7) this particular model is geared toward being an everything bike. the A/1 comes in 700c and 650b versions and it's designed to be a gravel bike or a trail bike or a touring bike or urban assault machine. Are there other bikes like that out there? sure.
8) vaast is concentrating on limiting their product line to a few specific types of bikes that can encompass as many types of riding as possible.
9) the article talked a lot about fit, and as a small person i had to do some extra work to get a better fit out of the box. I swapped the stock bars and stem for a 20mm shorter stem and bars with much less reach and flare. I will say the GRX hoods are a mile long to begin with so i definitely needed to shorten the reach.
10) On my size small i have minimal tow overlap issues. on my single track expedition this past weekend i only rubbed my shoes twice and it didn't cause me to falter
11) the company is heavily into sustainability. the frames are recyclable. the bike box is 100% recyclable with no plastic. the processes to remove and process the materials from the earth are safer and less harmful to the environment.
12) the super mag frame is lighter and stronger than steel, titanium, and aluminum, and a much much higher shock absorption rate than aluminum.

Anyway, i'm happy to talk about the bike with anyone that has questions!
In the meantime, here's some pics from my rides







Here's a clearer look at the bars/stem changes I made. I put on an 70mm Ritchey WCS C220 73d stem, and Whiskey No.7 6F bars. The bottle cages are Tacx Devas.

79pmooney

But, several big differences. 1) the safety bicycle was much faster because you could gear it so much higher. 2) Anybody could ride it, not just tall, brave (usually young) men.. 3) The penny farthing had been around, what 15 years? It wasn't entrenched in everybody's garage, 5 bike shops in every small city. Most people had never even considered riding a bike until the safety came along.

OK, the recumbent is faster,but not radically so. (Well, the really laid back ones are much faster downhill.) They have improved safety but suffer from poorer perception of safety. I think also the recumbent has suffered from poor presentation, David Wilson's was excellent but few got to ride it. Suppose it had a driven Gary Klein buildiing and marketing it. Presenting it as a finished, polished product. Putting bike racers on it. (Gary Klein took his early bikes to NEBC club races and encouraged us all to take a spin on them. Had professor Wilson equipped his recumbent with sewups and had one of us race it, well maybe the cycling world would be different now.)

Also we don't adopt big changes simply because they are better. Witness the metric system. Yes, we (the US) use metric a little because we have to to compete in the world. But our choice for everyday use is more archaic than the safety bicycle.

subgrade

Perhaps e-bikes are the 4th era? They may not revolutionize the general layout of a bicycle, but change the way people ride quite significantly.

DeadGrandpa

Path less pedaled youtube channel has a review of the bike.

tomato coupe

Do you have one made out of flax?

bblair

Flax? No, do you?

But I have seen frames made of wood. Beautiful works of art, but I have no idea how they ride or how much they weigh. Nature's carbon fiber?

tomato coupe

No, I don't have one. But, if you want to cover all your bases, it's got to be on the list.

79pmooney

There are excellent wood and bamboo bikes out there. The owner of Portland's River City Bicycles has a a bamboo one he commuted on for years, parking it on the showroom floor. Portland also has the framebuilder, Renova that builds laminated wood bikes that are light, stiff and gorgeous.

Both of those bikes are real bicycles that can be ridden as hard as any other and perform not far off the best out there. (And for show, no CF frame comes remotely close to the Renova.)

That said, my bikes are boring. 3 painted steel bikes and two ti, one bare, one 3/4s painted, both with painted steel forks. (Someone mentioned above titanium with CF forks. Not me.)