Why does steel make a premium bike frame?
First, ride any material you wish, just ride more.
I have owned and loved aluminum, titanium and carbon bikes.
Some of the reasons I prefer steel:
Steel has been refined, improved, and evolved longer than any other frame tubing available. It is available in a greater variety of alloys, sizes, shapes, and wall thickness than other metals.
Steel has the ideal physical properties to build a frame: it will flex within a designed range and return to its original shape indefinitely, like a spring, without fatigue.
Steel is easier to form, shape and weld, allowing builders to customize the look and feel of the bike beyond what is practical and possible with other metals.
There are more sources of steel tubing vs titanium or aluminum. Restless sources high quality tubes made in the USA, Italy, Japan and Great Britain.
When pushed beyond it physical limits, steel fails less catastrophically - it tends to bend when its limit is exceeded while carbon, aluminum and titanium tend to fracture and separate.
Finally, it is a cost effective material to choose when building a bike. And it’s recyclable too!
Each material has particular advantages, but when all factors are weighed together, steel is the right choice for bike frames.
