Things that are built to last have an aesthetic appeal. In the world of 'freestyle' bmx, ALL frames are steel, because nothing else would survive. Quarter-sized dents, gouges, mangled chainstays and chewed-up dropouts all happen to a new frame within the first month of hard riding, and will be there when you pass the frame to somebody else 2 years later (which they will then ride for another 2 years, etc). I've seen many frames that had cracked and been rewelded, and subsequently thrown down a set of stairs, over and over again, and then ridden away to the next spot.
The most important applications of a bicycle are commuting/work and touring/traveling. For those purposes you want something that can take a beating. The fact that Rivendell's philosophy is: 'steel' for it's durability/repairability is why I initially learned about them. I wish makers of production steel bikes would use heavier- gauge tubes, like 1/.7 or 1.2/.9. I have a custom touring bike that I bought because it has thick-gauge tubes that don't dent, but still has nice features (classic geometry, full rack and bottle mounts, vertical dropouts etc) that my '81 bike with Tange #5 PG tubes doesn't. Still, the old bike with PG tubes could tour virtually forever if you asked it to. -Matt -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
