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Aluminum: are there any fans left?

Old 06-14-20, 01:25 PM
  #126  
shelbyfv
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Originally Posted by Mulberry20
Go for it!!! You will be at 4k on a restoration in the blink of an eye. Paint, decals, new fork, headset, stem, bars, groupset, wheels,pedals, tires, saddle and labor.
I hope not! I have a nice 7800 group, wheels, tires, saddle, pedals and I do my own work. Fork looks fine on that one?? It is a little gaudy for my taste. Probably a solid color powder coat and just some down tube decals. Should be under $1000, easily.
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Old 06-14-20, 02:09 PM
  #127  
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Originally Posted by dfrench52
Hi folks... I've been looking for a new bike and am considering an aluminum-framed one. What's putting me off is this business of creaking bottom brackets. I'd think that a metal framed bike would be just the ticket for a threaded bb, but no, press-fit seems to be the order of the day with maybe one exception, Trek. Is there anyone here who has an objective measure as to the percentage of press-fit bb problems in newer bikes? Are there a greater percentage of bb problems with CF frames when compared to Aluminum? It seems to be a long-term discussion in forums, but it's probably fair to say that only the problem cases get aired (squeaky wheel getting the grease, so to speak.&#128513

Thanks
Actually I can think of three carbon bikes with threaded BB, Specialized, Pinarello and Bianchi. Check each model. Aluminum bike BB do creak. My old CAAD 7 did and at that time is was a top level aluminum bike. Every time I complained they torqued the cranks and said it was fixed. I don’t know about newer bikes because i am only around steel and carbon bikes sometimes Ti.

A good steel option is Gunnar. You can probably be out the door for $2500 I am guessing with Shimano 105.

Last edited by Mulberry20; 06-14-20 at 02:13 PM.
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Old 06-14-20, 02:15 PM
  #128  
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Originally Posted by shelbyfv
I hope not! I have a nice 7800 group, wheels, tires, saddle, pedals and I do my own work. Fork looks fine on that one?? It is a little gaudy for my taste. Probably a solid color powder coat and just some down tube decals. Should be under $1000, easily.
There is a guy in Vermont with parts and decals. The fork? I think I would put a carbon fork on it.
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Old 06-14-20, 04:38 PM
  #129  
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Originally Posted by Mulberry20
Aluminum bike BB do creak. My old CAAD 7 did and at that time is was a top level aluminum bike. Every time I complained they torqued the cranks and said it was fixed. I don’t know about newer bikes because i am only around steel and carbon bikes sometimes Ti.
This is a huge reason I started wrenching on my own bicycles. If something squeaks you don't tighten it more, you pull it part clean it, lube it and put it back together.

I am sure that the bike shop will blame the internet for the loss of business though.
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Old 06-14-20, 08:53 PM
  #130  
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Originally Posted by cyccommute
There’s more to suspension than comfort. I’d say that comfort is actually the least important reason for suspension. Front suspension increase control. If you’ve ever gotten a rigid bike trapped in a rut, you learn the lesson of staying out of ruts fairly quickly. To get out of the rut with a rigid fork, you have to counter steer but the wheel is trapped against the rut. You are probably going to crash if you can’t come to a stop.

With a suspension fork, the bike will almost climb out of the rut by itself. The fork provides give and allows the side knobs to catch the edge of the rut and climb out. The give of the fork allows that little bit of counter steer you need.
My steel Surly Disc Trucker front end can bounce on bumpy descents reducing control when it's needed most. & while the ride is fairly comfy, a suspension fork would be 3X comfier & give safer handling.

For road bikes, wouldn't an alu-frame/CF fork bike be nearly as comfy as an all-CF bike? A recently-posted video explained how various materials have little effect on absorbing rear shock. & one could get one of those fancy CF flexy seat-posts.

I hadn't heard about the alu BB creak before, hasn't happened to me including with an old Cannondale that did high mileage on bad roads.
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Old 06-15-20, 04:29 AM
  #131  
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Originally Posted by Mulberry20
Actually I can think of three carbon bikes with threaded BB, Specialized, Pinarello and Bianchi. Check each model. Aluminum bike BB do creak. My old CAAD 7 did and at that time is was a top level aluminum bike. Every time I complained they torqued the cranks and said it was fixed. I don’t know about newer bikes because i am only around steel and carbon bikes sometimes Ti.

A good steel option is Gunnar. You can probably be out the door for $2500 I am guessing with Shimano 105.
Thanks very much four your suggestions. Specialized and Trek are sold locally and more in my price range.
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Old 06-15-20, 05:59 AM
  #132  
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Early aluminum wasn't all that great just like early CF wasn't all that great but they've both come long way in the 40 or so years. I'm a steel/Ti guy but if I were to go out today to buy a bike for fast group rides either on the road or on the ttrail it'd be aluminum. Everything else out there is just to expensive (minus Surly on the dirt) to just go bang around and possibly/probably dump.
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Old 06-15-20, 06:07 AM
  #133  
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My feelings, exactly. The press-fit BB issue is something else altogether (probably belongs in another thread), but in my opinion, an aluminum frame would be a good candidate for a threaded BB.
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Old 06-15-20, 08:33 AM
  #134  
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The best material for a bike is the material on the bike which you enjoy riding. Opinions about quality of material aside, if you enjoy the bike and enjoy riding it then nothing else matters. That said, my bikes are steel. Not the latest, nor ever the greatest, but I ride. I have rode a carbon for about 50 miles, I didn't find anything special about the ride. And I have rode aluminium. For the price, put a decent groupset on the aluminium and ride. Frankly to me it has more to do with having to have the latest and greatest. A bike which fits you and has good working mechanicals will get you a long way.
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Old 06-15-20, 11:08 AM
  #135  
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I chose Al over carbon when I bought my bike. I thought the ride feel was superior and carbon was not worth the premium for otherwise similar configuration.
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Old 06-15-20, 11:24 AM
  #136  
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Iam definitely a steel/Ti guy, but due to cost I bought a Santa Cruz Chameleon aluminum frame and... I freaking love it. Almost no discernible difference to me vs my old ROS steel that I wish I hadn't sold. Never thought I'd own aluminum, but I like it! If I get the money for a new road bike, I may get an Allez sprint now. OrCAAD something.
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Old 06-15-20, 11:28 AM
  #137  
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Aluminum: are there any fans left?

Yes, Grainger still has a lot of them.

Aluminum fans
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Old 06-15-20, 11:29 AM
  #138  
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Originally Posted by General Geoff
I love aluminum, the material is great. It gets a bad rep because its the cheapest material and therefore is used in cheap designs with cheap components.

Get a premium aluminum bike and its fantastic.
The really cheap bikes are still all steel, right down to their slippery-when-wet rims. but Robert Persig's comment on steel applies to all alloys. People who don't work with metal tend to think that it exists in immutable shapes. A metalworker tends to think of it in terms of basic physical properties. You can get it to be any shape you want if you are skilled enough, and any other shape if you are not. There isn't even any steel in nature - anybody from the Bronze Age could have told you that. "Aluminum" runs the range from pure, soft metal to strong, brittle alloys. It overlaps a lot with cheap stainless steel in strength, but never in stiffness. The low density of aluminum allows it to be used in larger tubes, gaining strength and stiffness, but losing on wind resistance.
There are people who ask for carbon fiber to be fashionable, and I tend to give up trying to help them, and let someone else overcharge on the deal.
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Old 06-15-20, 11:39 AM
  #139  
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my main road bike is al everything including the fork
GT

i guess it is stiff, i don;t really know

i have 3 other al bikes with either carbon or al forks, they all seem great to me
either klein or fuji

i'm not racing
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Old 06-15-20, 11:39 AM
  #140  
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btw Speaking of Aluminum and Aluminum frame fans.....

412 pages of them!!!!!

https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycl...-caad-412.html
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Old 06-15-20, 11:40 AM
  #141  
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I ride a 2010 (2011?) aluminum Trek 2.3. It has 105 components and was a huge upgrade (for me) over the 1990s era fat tube aluminum Cannondale I had been riding before the Trek. I'm not a clydesdale, I don't race, and I don't really care about an extra pound or two or three of frame weight.

I do care about the components, though, and the problem these days with aluminum is that it seems to have moved decidedly down-market, such that you can no longer find aluminum frames with 105 or Ultegra level groups, at least not unless you build it up yourself, which I don't want to do. Thus my next bike will be CF, not because I'm dissatisfied with aluminum, but because I want 105 or Ultegra.
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Old 06-15-20, 12:33 PM
  #142  
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Originally Posted by road292
I ride a 2010 (2011?) aluminum Trek 2.3. It has 105 components and was a huge upgrade (for me) over the 1990s era fat tube aluminum Cannondale I had been riding before the Trek. I'm not a clydesdale, I don't race, and I don't really care about an extra pound or two or three of frame weight.

I do care about the components, though, and the problem these days with aluminum is that it seems to have moved decidedly down-market, such that you can no longer find aluminum frames with 105 or Ultegra level groups, at least not unless you build it up yourself, which I don't want to do. Thus my next bike will be CF, not because I'm dissatisfied with aluminum, but because I want 105 or Ultegra.
My 2019 CAAD 12 is 105 and cost me $1350. The new CAAD 13 can be had with all the components you mentioned. You can find a lot of AL bikes with 105 and Ultegra. Not sure why you think you can't.
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Old 06-15-20, 12:35 PM
  #143  
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Originally Posted by taco2ewsday
As a heavier rider I trust aluminum over Carbon, I do have a carbon fork however.
It's the fork that scares me most. If a carbon fork fails, it's over the handlebars. If you are willing to trust a carbon fork shouldn't you be able to trust an all-carbon bike? (Assuming you are within the manufacturer's recommended weight limit.) Aluminum can also fail catastrophically! it is a brittle metal and does not flex like carbon and does not bend like steel. It just cracks and breaks. In fact, one might argue that aluminum is more likely to fail more catastrophically than carbon since it will just snap, I've never heard of a carbon frame just snapping.
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Old 06-15-20, 12:59 PM
  #144  
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Originally Posted by Paul Barnard
I don't begrudge those who have to suffer aluminum frames on account of their limited financial means. I used to be poor too.
I agree. Someone's buying all those aluminum-framed Walmart and Target bicycles.
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Old 06-15-20, 01:01 PM
  #145  
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The downside to CF to me is that if it fails and you happen to inhale the dust from the fibres, you are going to die, its just a matter of time as the small shards of fibre get in your lungs and poke holes in the cell walls which causes bleeding and infection.

I first heard about this from an ex-military friend who read a report about a heavy equipment guy who ploughed (buried) the corpse of the first Canadian F-18 to crash in Canada. Not long after he got serious lung problems and died. They determined the cause was the CF in his lungs..

Having said that my fav steed, 2000 Devinci Millenial roadbike has a front fork made of CF.

I am saying this to make PPL aware of that danger, not to dis CF.
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Old 06-15-20, 01:09 PM
  #146  
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Originally Posted by sjanzeir
I don't know if it's just me or that it's actually become a thing to crap all over aluminum recently, but if these great forums of ours are anything to go by, most everyone seems to be riding aluminum not because they want to, but because they feel like they have to.

Everywhere you look around the forums, people seem to be pining for something other than aluminum: there are the fanatical steel purists who talk down to you because... nostalgia and this whole "nothing rides better" business.

There are the cost-no-object carbon bros who seem to believe that the fact that they could afford, bought, and paid for carbon fiber somehow gives them the right - nay, the obligation - to crap on the "lesser beings" around here as their second favorite pastime.

Then there are the titanium elitists, whose other favorite sport seems to be crapping on other titanium elitists because... only they have the birthright to ride titanium? Or something - whatever.

And the bamboo people? There seems to be too few of them around here to cause any major controversy, aside from the possibly occasional you're-killing-the-planet-and-we're-saving-it mantra.

So, where are the aluminum fans in all of this? Are there any of them actually left? It's been a long time since I've seen anyone (dare to) say that they actually prefer aluminum to any other material, even though they could easily afford to ride carbon, steel or titanium. After having been dubbed "the material of the future" at some point in the history of cycling, how did aluminum fall from grace like this, to the point where it almost became "the material of the dumb?"
I have a Cannondale CAAD12 with 105. I really like it. Haven't had an issue in 4000 miles. It's a light as some carbon.
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Old 06-15-20, 01:11 PM
  #147  
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I’m still loving my MountainKlein from 1986!! Ride it often.
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Old 06-15-20, 01:33 PM
  #148  
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My first real good bicycle was a Cannondale SR800. Got it right as I was graduating college, spring 1987, because my girlfriend at the time and her family were into bike racing. I was a runner/XC skier but wanted to get into tri's and dabble in bike racing. She and her Dad got me connected with a shop that did a great job sizing me up and getting that bike set up to race. I LOVED that bike so much!! It fit great, was mechanically easy, and gave back as much as I could have ever wanted when I punched it. I raced it until about 1992 when some cretin stole it out of my garage. Had some super fast bike splits and TTs on that bike, and it always treated me well in training.

After that one got stolen I went with a Serotta Colorado LT (steel) that I'm still riding.
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Old 06-15-20, 01:44 PM
  #149  
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Current primary steed is Al with Carbon fork. It was priced right and rides beautifully. Unless something either very bad or something very good happens, it will probably be my last. What I do like about my bike is the paint job. It is a matt black (read stealth), and no one can see me until I have already passed them.
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Old 06-15-20, 01:50 PM
  #150  
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Originally Posted by sjanzeir
.... And the bamboo people? There seems to be too few of them around here to cause any major controversy, aside from the possibly occasional you're-killing-the-planet-and-we're-saving-it mantra.
Good heavens! I cannot imagine trusting bamboo on a long downhill in the rain. Not to mention if a giant panda or a red panda happened upon it...
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