Comment by Gualdrapo
3 days ago
I wish someone like Columbus/Reynolds/Tange could catch on this. It'd be awesome a road bike made of fancy/extra durable stainless steel tubing, lugged, horizontal top tube and that classic geometry but with disc brakes and thru axles.
They caught on, but with more appropriate stainless alloys. Columbus has XCr, Reynolds has 931. Either can be brazed, or silver soldered into lugs, or TIG welded. Cinelli does mass production of the bike you're describing, minus the lugs.
304 can't be optimized to a point it'll compete with the vast range of other stainless steels that already exist. Something else will always be more corrosion resistant, or stronger, or tougher. 304 exists on price. It's quick, common, and cheap. This process makes 304 expensive, uncommon, and slower to produce. The proven concept is what's carrying value here.
Why though? Cr-Mo steel tubing is already superior to 304 stainless in every relevant measure, except surface corrosion. In particular this article discusses fatigue behavior, and Cr-Mo has a (much) higher fatigue limit than 304.
This is also true WRT knife steels. Old, simple carbon based steels are much stronger than most stainless steels. They tend to bend rather than chip or break (when abused). They do rust and do have less edge retention than some stainless steels (such as S90V), but otherwise they are generally stronger.
Totally. Just curious why the above wanted a stainless bike. If you want a steel road bike with disc brakes and thru-axles you can absolutely order one right now. I myself ride a Soma Wolverine with Tange Prestige Cr-Mo tubing, flat mount disc brakes, and thru-axles.
If you wanted a bike that didn't necessarily need painting, you can order a bike like that in titanium tubing instead.
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That's just not true, though. Stainless (e.g. AEB-L) is up to four times tougher than simple low-alloy carbon steel (e.g. 1095). See https://knifesteelnerds.com/2021/10/19/knife-steels-rated-by... for example.
High hardness simple carbon steels do have their place in knives, but what you're saying is factually incorrect.
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Reynolds 501 is CrMo. But 531, which was more coveted, swapped the chrome for manganese, making it lighter at the same mechanical numbers.
The stainless steel construction helps with flux dispersal when you hit 88mph.
> Cr-Mo steel tubing is already superior to 304 stainless in every relevant measure
If you exclude cost as a relevant measure.
Stainless is more expensive as well
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Now that I have an aluminum bike I can’t go back - lugging it up and down stairs is so much nicer.
For me it was getting the fucking things into and out of car racks or trunks. Picking a bike up is not hard. Brandishing it at chest or head height is something else entirely.