Fixie Bikes – Retro Cycling Vintage

Benefits of Steel Bicycle Frames

Posted September 29, 2009 by admin in Frames, French, Italian, Road, Steel frames | No comments yet

If we ignore the cheaper supermarket style high tensile steel frames and look at the classic steel alloy frames which are often a mixture with chrome, manganese, nickel etc we can see the the recent successful utilization of aluminium and carbon fibre meant that steel had to raise its game to keep up in the bike frame business.
Go back to the 80s and Reynolds 531 and 753 and Columbus SL and SP dominated the racing market. Look at the 1990s and beyond to see Reynolds and Columbus joined by a multitude of other tubing manufactuers whilst expanding their own offerings of tubesets to satisfy a greater demand of rider's requirements. Touring, mtb, track, time trialing all require slightly different tubesets.
In addition to the wider selection of steels consumers are also faced with a wider choice of tubes made from the materials. Plain guage and double butted have been supplemented by a wide selection of different buttings and profiles.
To a great extent steel had become unfashionable amonst riders which means it becomes fashionable for restorers. Newer materials are often pushed as being 'better' , however its certainly worth remembering that good steel tubes remain eminently suitable for bicycle frames. They also usually offer the answer when the question is quite simply "what frame should I get?"

For: Strong, Cheap, Stiff, Repairable
Against: Rust

Good examples of steel frames for restoration projects

Easy: Raleigh, Bianchi, Colnago, Merckx, Peugeot
Harder to find: Masi, Botecchia, Pinarello, Moser, ciocc, wilier,
Great if you can get one: Legnano, Roberts, Mercian, Hetchins