The Power of Steel

Greetings and salutations to all you guys and gals living in the Ice Age of the midwest. Don't dispair as another warmup is on its way. Dust off the HR monitors and inflate them Tubulars cause its riding time again! I noticed the other day that I have run around 50 bikes thru my legs so far. Of all of them I remember one of them not being steel. It was my old cannondale. That was before anyone had thought or dreamt of words like butting, oversizing, thinning out and so far. The ride on this monster was painful. I could literally feel everything on the road, down to the color paint on the stripes. The wheelbase was short, the ride hard and also no room for bigger tires to take some of the shock away.
All the rest of my bikes have been steel. Some of them really crap, some of them broke, (after 50,000 miles) and the rest you can imagine. I have finally downsized my stable of horses to 10 bikes. 10 bikes, like 10 fingers, like 10 toes, 10.
All of the bikes are steel. The bike pictured above is an incredible Pegoretti Marcelo that belongs to my wife. Steel has still an appeal to many people that really know bikes.
Aluminum and Carbon bikes have really no soul in them and for some reason I cannot become enamoured with them. I understand that they are light, that this, that that, blah, blah, blah. I still find it fascinating to see someone cut the tubes and weld or braze the whole thing together. I think this month the American Handmade Show took place in California or somewhere in the west. Next time you are thinking about a new frame give steel a checkout. We have seen nice bikes come with cheap Chinese made forks, heavy seatposts made with cheap aluminum wrapped in a thin layer of Carbon. Pick up that light looking carbon bike and put it on a scale.
Just a thought,
Ari