What is the best material to use in building a bicycle frame — steel, aluminum, titanium or carbon fiber?
What about something more exotic? While this certainly isn’t as important a topic as who will replace Shannon on “Beverly Hills 90210,” it is fodder for lengthy debates among bike junkies like myself. In this six-part series we’ll examine metallurgy as it applies to bicycles. If I do my job right, you will be educated about all the popular materials currently used in bicycle-frame construction, and you’ll have some understanding of what to expect in the future. I also hope to give you a bullshit filter for the clever and often misleading ads that the bike industry uses to prey on the underinformed. It really doesn’t matter that boralyn was used for tank armor, or that rocket scientists designed your ride. You don’t have to wear a white lab coat to design a good bike. Sound engineering and an intimate knowledge of the biomechanical interface between bike and rider are the only prerequisites. To begin, you must understand that the traditional bicycle frame is a highly evolved mechanical
