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I am glad to see that trucks are catching up with bicycles! The bicycle business moved to aluminium a generation ago. For at least a decade carbon fibre has be
by Theodores 13y ago
I am glad to see that trucks are catching up with bicycles!
The bicycle business moved to aluminium a generation ago. For at least a decade carbon fibre has been the material of choice for road bikes. Nowadays if you are from the school of 'steel is real' then you are going to have to buy a cheap 'bicycle shaped object', get something custom handmade or go for something deliberately hipster-retro.
Clearly there have been aluminium bodied cars for some time, even a 'truck' if you count the Land Rover. However, there is aluminium and there is aluminium. I suspect that the new Ford truck has a bit more to it than the Land Rover (or even the Audi A2) has.
In the bike business there is 6 series aluminium and 7 series aluminium, to name the most popular alloys. The original aluminium frames were welded together tubes, for a while 'bonding' was experimented with but that proved to be unreliable. The current state of the art is 'hydroformed' aluminium, welded. The 'hydroformed' frames are works of art, with the metal where you need it for strength, the grain structure also aligned for strength. The tubes are anything but plain cylinders and much more useful for design than was possible in the days of steel.
Does anyone have any more technical information on what the processes and alloys are going to be on this new-fangled truck?
- snth 13y ago> Nowadays if you are from the school of 'steel is real' then you are going to have to buy a cheap 'bicycle shaped object', get something custom handmade or go for something deliberately hipster-retro. Not entirely. http://surlybikes.com/ http://surlybikes.com/ Steel is still cheaper, easier to fix, and more comfortable.
- Theodores 13y agoAs it happens I ride steel, primarily for the first reason you mention! I am also from the UK and I was over-generalising about what is available. There are plenty of people that still prefer steel, this is something I like about bicycles, there is a lot more individuality going on with bikes than you get (generally) with motoring.
- haberman 13y ago> Nowadays if you are from the school of 'steel is real' then you are going to have to buy a cheap 'bicycle shaped object', get something custom handmade or go for something deliberately hipster-retro. You might consider this to be in the second category, but here is a high-end bicycle maker that does exclusively steel frames: http://www.rodcycle.com/ http://www.rodcycle.com/ Here is their advocacy for steel frames: http://www.rodbikes.com/articles/steel.html http://www.rodbikes.com/articles/steel.html
- kitsune_ 13y agoTitanium is still king :) Unfortunately custom titanium frames cost a bloody fortune.
- draker 13y agoThe alloy used in the Land Rover was Birmabright which is 7% magnesium, sometimes 1% manganese and aluminum.[1] Without the maganese this would be a series 5 aluminum according to the alloy grade comparison I found.[2] 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmabright#cite_note-Camm.2C_Birmabright-1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmabright#cite_note-Camm.2C_B... 2. http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general/aluminium-alloy-grades-171343/ http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general/aluminium-alloy...