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Young’s
modulus
or
elastic modulus.
A
stiff
frame transmits the impact of every pebble and nick in the tarmac directly to the nerves in your gluteus maximus, that is, your bum, while a
flexible
frame absorbs the shocks. Most people who have ridden both aluminium and steel frames would say that aluminium frames are stiffer. Actually, steel has a much higher Young’s
modulus
than aluminium — it is stiffer. It’s just that aluminium tubes tend to be much larger in diameter than steel, and as a tube’s diameter increases, its stiffness increases to the third power of that number.
    In reality, the tyres, the wheels, the seat posts and the saddle proper absorb the bumps. The frame itself contributes little or nothing to shock absorbency. It’s also important to remember that two frames made from different materials would not be made to the same tubing dimensions, making a relative comparison impossible. The frame feature that does have some bearing on comfort is the design of the rear triangle — the triangle formed by the seat post tube, the chain stays and the seat stays.
    The most deceptive aspect of modern bike frames is weight. The frame of my newest road bike is carbon (Toray T-700 SC carbon, if you must know). It weighs under 3.5 lb. It’s ‘Phwoarrr’-light. People who aren’t familiar with modern road-racing bicycles pick it up and actually go, ‘Phwoarrr’. Unquestionably, the lighter a bike is, the easier it is to pedal uphill. But the industry has become obsessed with making bikes lighter when, for the vast majority of riders, the paramount consideration is not weight, but that a frame should not break in use.
    Carbon fibre is currently the most popular frame material for elite professionals, largely because it is so light. If your absolute priority is having the lightest bike possible, because you’re a professional cyclist and you need to shave seconds off the time it takes you to climb a 12 mile mountain road in the Pyrenees, to give you a competitive advantage, make a living and put food onthe table for your children, then you must have a carbon frame. For the rest of us, it’s either an indulgence or we’re victims of a conspiracy. Or both.
    Yes, even the bicycle industry has a conspiracy theory. It goes like this: the manufacturers of mass-produced bicycles spend a fortune on R&D to ensure that the top professionals they sponsor ride the lightest, fastest bicycles, and win races. The manufacturers need to recoup this expenditure while reducing the costs of production, so they throw everything at marketing to the public the same, or similar, elite bikes as the pros ride.
    My dream bicycle will be made from steel. Here’s why:
    1. Steel is very strong. High-quality steel has a very high
yield strength
or
elastic range
— the point at which it bends permanently rather than bends back to its original shape — making it durable and less likely to bend in a crash. This means that steel tubes can be thin, with a small diameter, making steel frames light and sufficiently flexible. As people like to say: ‘steel is real’.
    2. Steel has a long life. When I visited Argos Cycles, a well-established frame-building workshop on an industrial estate in Bristol, I was shown several dozen steel frames dating back to World War II. There were frames made by some of the great names, such as Hetchins and A. S. Gillott, hanging on the wall, awaiting restoration work. They were about to be realigned, shot-blasted, rubbed down, primed and resprayed. Further along the wall there were several fully restored, gleaming frames waiting to be collected. They looked brand new. ‘Years of riding left in them,’ Mark, the workshop manager, told me. ‘We have a near constant supply of steel frames in for restoration. Many are over fifty years old. A carbon frame simply won’t last anything like that long.’
    3. Steel is not prone to sudden