Steel road bike Q's

[leah]

Hearing about the sudden failures of carbon (which freaks me out a little) - I am thinking of going with a steel road bike as my first road bike. I also understand that it offers an extremely smooth ride as opposed to carbon where you feel every bump and crack in the road.

I am a little spoiled because I test-rode all these carbon bikes with the ultegra gruppo and that is definitely what I want.

As far as how I ride, I want to go fast and to keep up with group rides, but I am not shooting to win any races or anything. I ride a lot (60-90 minutes a day, most days) so I'd like it to be comfortable.

The only off the shelf steel bike I can find with a women's specific design and ultegra shifters (rear derailleurs, anyway) is the Jamis Quest Femme. I am short (5'4") so leaning towards a WSD if possible.

If you have a steel road bike, what did you choose and why? Do you find it much slower as compared with carbon?

Can you recommend something that will suit the kind of riding I described? Or should I try to go for a custom build?

Thanks so much!

[ny biker]

I won't try to talk you out of steel, but fwiw with carbon you don't feel every bump and crack in the road. Carbon offers a rather smooth ride, which is why they add carbon forks and seatposts to aluminum bikes.

As for sudden failures, that's not really a problem either. The damage is generally caused by an impact like a crash or hitting the frame against something.

Regardless, I don't think being on the short side necessarily means you need a WSD frame. A small version of a non-WSD frame might fit you fine, depending on the frame dimensions and your reach, inseam, etc.

[spokewench]

I started with steel and went to carbon later. I liked my steel bike so would not tell you no to a steel bike. If you want to climb faster, the weight of a carbon bike cannot be beat. It will get you to the top quicker and easier!

If you ride in really windy weather, you will notice that the bike moves around easier and so won't feel as stable there. Can be a bit scary at first.

Most carbon frames do not just fail any more than a steel bike just fails. It is usually caused by something unless it is a weird one of a kind defect in manufacturing. This does not happen that often.

Of course, most steel bikes are cheaper so I would not tell you which way to go

[spokewench]

I started with steel and went to carbon later. I liked my steel bike so would not tell you no to a steel bike. If you want to climb faster, the weight of a carbon bike cannot be beat. It will get you to the top quicker and easier!

If you ride in really windy weather, you will notice that the bike moves around easier and so won't feel as stable there. Can be a bit scary at first.

Most carbon frames do not just fail any more than a steel bike just fails. It is usually caused by something unless it is a weird one of a kind defect in manufacturing. This does not happen that often.

Of course, most steel bikes are cheaper so I would not tell you which way to go

[Savra]

I have a steel touring bike. It's heavy and does not hit the high speeds nearly as easily as my aluminum road bike. I love my steel bike - don't get me wrong. But I would jump at the chance for an all carbon bike. I think they have different functions. As people have already said - carbon is a nice smooth ride and so is steel. Steel bikes are often more all around type bikes rather than get out and ride with a group doing 23 mph. Those doing the high speed, high mileage rides tend to do those better with carbon because of how light they are.
So, if you want an all around get around type bike - I recommend a steel bike. If not and you want to go fast for a long time - I would jump at carbon.

[Owlie]

I've never had a chance to ride a steel bike (because no one has my size). However, I've ridden two carbon bikes. One was a very, very smooth ride, almost disconcertingly so, because it was hard to "feel" my way around corners and so on. The other wasn't quite as bad, but it was a shorter ride.

I think steel bikes tend to be "all-rounder" bikes, like Surly's offerings. They're not necessarily quick, but they're comfortable. If you want to go fast, then look more closely at carbon.

[Kiwi Stoker]

You do need to look after a steel bike more because of rust. Basically if you want to keep your steel bike in good condition you will need to keep touch up paint handy for scratches etc and you really need to "drain" your bike after riding in heavy rain, especially the seat tube because these will rust out.

You can for extra cost get the inside of the frame's tubes coated so they won't rust.

The only time I have seen carbon crack is because of a bad accident (and any bike then will have damage), a pro level cyclist putting too much power into a sprint or someone over tighteneing a clamp and this can be avoided by using a torque wrench to tighten things.