Not ridden a steel bike since you were a kid? Then things have moved on. But should you go steel for tri? We assess the pedigree of three steel road bikes
Yet by the late 1980s, Cannondale’s radical aluminum frames had gained acceptance and then, after a brief liaison with titanium, carbon fibre took firm hold of the bike market. Steel was seemingly consigned to history as too heavy, old and unfashionable, with Allen riding a carbon fibre Huffy (actually built by Kestrel) to Kona victory in 1992 and the Spanish great Miguel Indurain being the final man to win the Tour de France on a steel bike in 1994.
But as riding possibilities expanded, steel became the perfect material to fill the burgeoning niches for fixies, urban warriors, utility, rough stuff and adventure bikes, and now gravel riding. A raft of new craftspeople, many of them British, have revived interest in the possibilities for steel fabrication, meaning steel can be a premium product again and is seeing a resurgence on racing bikes.
Here we’ve brought together three beautiful, classic-looking steel road machines to see how they rate for year-round UK riding, taking into account durability, weight and endurance comfort, as well as the ability to provide high-paced efforts that could compete with carbon once the UK tri season returns.
SERIAL INNOVATOR
This story is from the November 2017 edition of 220 Triathlon.
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This story is from the November 2017 edition of 220 Triathlon.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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