Different tools for different jobs. My Eriksen is as fine a bike as you’ll find anywhere, but it’s probably too supple for the serious amateur racer. I have

Different tools for different jobs. My Eriksen is as fine a bike as you’ll find anywhere, but it’s probably too supple for the serious amateur racer. I have a couple very high end carbon bikes, which are marvels. For a race, I’d go carbon super light. For a really climby day I’d take the super light. For a long ride, casual ride or a personal tour, I’d take the Eriksen every single day. I’ll own that bike the rest of my life and probably ride it as long as I can ride. As for the topic, it’s apropos to our ti tangent. Scandium made the aluminum a bit easier to work and a bit more supple (al frames can be brutally stiff, like really racy carbon frames) I think they triple butted the ends of the tubes to provide enough material to bond which added stiffness. With scandium you can weld it without as much metal, it’s stronger and since you use less metal it has a bit more flex. Al construction got better and carbon came along which is even cheaper... I keep a bianchi veloce cross scandium bike, still quite delightful to ride, it’s my main winter bike and it doesn’t seem to beat me up like some of the really stiff al racing bikes of the era.