Fahrenheit531 

I found it pretty interesting... thought I'd share.

jamesdak 

Noticed the riding scenes were from the old video where he rode the old Orbea Cabestany.

L134 

Nice video. Thanks.

Jarrett2

I felt like he was trying to take a dig at steel bikes the whole time. Or rather steel bike proponents. Would be nice to get someone that actually knows about steel bikes to do the video.

plonz 

Somewhat interesting and quite amusing how he consistently butchered "al-loo-minium".

canklecat

I usually enjoy GCN videos but I can only take just so much of Simon's voice. Too much vocal fry, trying to force his voice to sound deeper than it naturally is. He should take some voice lessons. But he's good in the mix with the other co-hosts. They have a great rapport and the videos are fun and informative.

ColonelSanders

As a Brit, he was pronouncing it correctly.

Vintage Raleigh

Same in Australia.
Off the phonetics path, he was speaking I think to a younger audience of artisanal custom built fixie riders.

Trakhak

I rode high-end steel bikes from the mid-'60s to the mid-'00s and ran bike store service departments for two decades, and I didn't see any anti-steel bias.

jamesdak 

Yeah, everyone knows I love my steel rides too but I didn't see him as bias either.

TenGrainBread 

I think he was just trying to maintain a level of neutrality/respectfulness with regard to materials, which is sorely needed (around here especially).

I thought the video did a great job of outlining the properties, benefits, and disadvantages of the material while also highlighting the pertinent point that most people don't get - there is no such thing as "the steel bike" or "the carbon bike", nor properties that all steel bikes or all carbon bikes have. All bikes use different tubing, geometry, components, which have more of an effect on the feel of a bike than inherent properties of the material itself. The general public doesn't get that, and many C&Vers don't either.

Plus that fillet brazed Saffron frame featured in the video is beautiful. I think a lot of C&Vers would appreciate the construction (the seat junction especially).

Fahrenheit531 

+1 ... I thought he did a good job as well. Sure he took a couple of jabs, but that's British humour and it was funny. "And some of you do rave; sorry, but you do."

gugie 

He mentioned toughness at the beginning, but never expanded on it.

That, to me, is one of the great benefits of steel. It typically gives fair warning before it fails, much more so than aluminium and carbon fiber.

TenGrainBread 

While that might be true for a certain group of frames from a certain time period, again, it's a generalization that isn't true by nature of being one material or the other.

There are many different alloys of steel and aluminum. And then further multiply those by various processing (annealing and heat treating) that can change the mechanical properties of the alloy, making them more ductile or harder or stronger. And then further multiply that by the various grain structures that can be produced with modern alloy production techniques that give the metal different responses to different types of stresses, impacts, and strains. This scientific paper demonstrates how variable a metal's response to force can be depending on the type of alloy, tempering, grain structure, and direction/type of force.

To put it shortly, a material's properties are not set in stone, so to speak. The way modern aluminum responds to stress can be made very similar to steel, depending on how it's made and treated. We already see this with the way steel production has evolved over the last four decades. Frame makers in the 60s would never have even imagined the steel alloys that exist today with corrosion resistance and UTS in the 2000 mpa range. Same for aluminum. It makes no sense to say "aluminum" acts a certain way in general. Too many bicycle enthusiasts have tunnel vision when it comes to modern metallurgy and production.

Andy_K 

In that case, they misspelled "aluminium" on the overlay at 1:57.

noglider 

I like their videos, including this one. @canklecat, I know what you mean about his vocal technique, as I'm a singer, but it's in fashion, and while I won't use it, I'm OK with it. He seems to have some training in acting or something related, which can add a little dramatic emphasis even when he is just dispensing facts, and I find that to be a good thing.

noglider 

Fit is also another huge factor. Changing the fit of a bike (or going from a bike of one fit to a bike of another fit) can give dramatic differences. Changing the handlebars on a bike can get me to love or hate a bike.

Jarrett2

He mentioned rust for example. A lot of builders are using either the new stainless stuff or ED coating on the inside to negate rust. Essentially a non issue at this point.

He mentioned 4130, but failed to mention butting, heat treating, air hardening that allows for improvements over standard 4130, not to mention things like 953. I also thought it was odd he mentioned Columbus (Italian) versus Reynolds (English) when he brought up tubeset manufacturers.

He also failed to mention that steel is much more impact resistant to sharp objects and fails less catastrophically then carbon fiber.

He also did not mention that steel picks up where carbon leaves off for heavier riders and loads.

He also danced around the whole steel feel difference seeming to play it off to geometry.

When you summed it up, he downplayed steel's strengths while mentioning the weaknesses. Not that it really matters, people are going to ride what they like. Once they get on a steel bike, they will likely wonder why it took them so long to ride one.

ColonelJLloyd 

Which, I think, most custom steel builders will agree with.

That probably says more about your own bias. If anything it just seemed he was pointing out that those in who dig in on any material camp cherry pick stats or anecdotes to support their own bias. There's nothing inherently superior or inferior about carbon, steel or aluminum for building bicycle frames.

If this video bothered you, make sure and avoid the one where he rides an 80s steel Orbea and a modern carbon one back to back. It was a pretty futile exercise.

Jarrett2

Kinda proving my point about the GCN slant. Steel bike improvements didn't stop in 1980. Maybe comparing a 2017 Genesis racing bike to a modern carbon one would have been a more fair comparison that doesn't make steel bikes out to be something of antiquity.

ColonelJLloyd 

No, it doesn't prove your point. Which is, I gather, that GCN is biased against steel as a material for bicycle frames. The "point" of the second video I referenced was not about steel, carbon or any other material. It was about old tech versus new. But, it was an awful test and I they didn't try to claim that it was at all scientific or even good really. It was just a playful video for people who don't take it as seriously as you seem to.

FWIW, I think GCN make some very informative and well produced videos.

Jarrett2

We agree there. I like a lot of their videos. Very good resource to have around, even if they don't know much about modern steel bikes

gugie 

I am getting old, my ability to do sustained research of new studies of old topics is waning. I did take a look at link, and did a quick and dirty search on some of the newer aluminum alloys used in frame production, but couldn't find any claim that there's a fatigue limit of any aluminum alloy. If you have any, please share.

Lascauxcaveman 

That's exactly how I interpreted it, too.

noglider 

Yeah, I don't feel an aluminum or carbon fan is going to ruin my enjoyment of my steel bikes.