Posted by Rick Denney on December 11, 2003 at 18:09:47:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: 6-valve Alex f For Sale/Trade posted by C(G) on December 10, 2003 at 02:31:26:
The Graftek was actually quite stiff, until they broke. John Howard raced them, and he's about the tallest bike racer I've ever met. Carbon composite was a whole different thing than CP titanium. Bill Moore (who built my bike) built all the forks for the Grafteks that had steel forks.
The Italian aluminum bike you are thinking of is the Alan, which was made of untreated aluminum tubes threaded and epoxied into cast aluminum lugs. We called them "screwed and glued." Their natural successor was a French aluminum bike (whose name eludes me) that was also about as stiff as an al dente linguini noodle. But they were at least strong for small guys doing time trials. When I hear people talk about how aluminum makes a horribly stiff ride, I remember those Alans. They impression of aluminum is too skewed by the ultra-fat-tubed design of Cannondales.
Which brings me back to tubas. Most of the arguments about materials are really arguments about design posing as arguments about materials. It's true with bikes, and it's true with tubas.
Rick "whose touring bike is a smooth-riding--aluminum--Cannondale, ca 1984" Denney