All things being equal (geometry, wheels, etc.) what is the most comfortable frame material for long rides?
Carbon
Steel
Aluminum
Ti
Wood
If your answer has the name of an adult diaper involved, keep it to yourself.
Completely a matter of personal preference and typical ride distances. I used to PREFER a harsher ride. I liked to feel the buzz of the road and have a sense of feeling the contact as much as possible. To me the feeling of a somewhat harsh ride felt similar to driving a sports car with a stiff suspension - I liked the feedback it gave me. In fact, on a couple of occasions, I passed on more expensive carbon bikes in favor of less expensive aluminium options. That was 10 years ago. My older bones and joints have changed my mind completely today.
So you won’t even get the same answer out of this one guy, let alone a bunch of people.
You can ask an unanswerable question, then say not to give the right answer. So I’ll bite, it depends. What it depends on is the frame makers and designers intentions. If you have a preferred geometry and wheels, parts etc a good custom built bike can be comfortable when made with any material.
However, typically I’d say that comfort is most often found in this order. (Most to least)
Bamboo,
Wood,
Ti
Steel
Carbon
Aluminum
Mind you I’m talking todays frames, the first Carbon and Al frames were flexy as hell and very comfortable (meaning soaking up bumps). One caveat, Carbon,especially, can be made ungodly stiff, or very compliant these days, so know what a manufacturer is going for…
Styrrell
I would bet you can’t discern the difference between steel, AL and Carbon given that 95+% of comfort comes from saddles, wheels and tires. Think of it this way, is a steel framed couch more comfortable than a wooden framed one? … Or does it depend on the cushions?
Can God make a boulder to heavy for Him to pick up?
you are trolling aren’t you?
serious answer anyway: materials are not inherently comfortable or not. carbon does allow for some engineering options that can provide comfort without sacrificing as much performance though.
No. Not trolling.
I’m looking to buy a road bike mainly for training volume. However, I always end up in the unintended realm when it comes to stuff like this and I might end up doing some bike racing some day. My wife is about to flip because every time I mention… well that’s a post for the LR…
Anyway…
I just talked to a guy today out riding who was on a Ti bike. He said Ti was the “most comfortable” material (I know, I know. One dude on one bike). I rode his bike around a bit. Aside from the fact that it didn’t really fit, I was coming off my P2, it had different wheels, saddle, road bars, etc. (same pedals as me, go figure) it seemed really comfy AND lively. It got me thinking.
I’ve ridden an R3 and RS Cervelo and both those bikes are super. I love the look of some of those wood bikes so… I just didn’t want to post another “which road bike should I buy” post.
Thanks.
you really have to control for wheels/tires/tubes/pressures when comparing bike handling/comfort.
sorta like you have to control for tires/pressures/alignment when comparing car handling. you will notice magazines never do that =)
Bike design willplay a much larger role in frame comfort than material. Compare a Vitus to a Cannondale form the early 90’s. Bot made form the same material…one was a wet noodle and the other rattled your fillings loose.
My most comfortable bike is my fat tube aluminum Klein. Also have steel and full carbon Probably different as a 58 me weighing 190 and same bike in a 52 someone weighing 110
you really have to control for wheels/tires/tubes/pressures when comparing bike handling/comfort.
sorta like you have to control for tires/pressures/alignment when comparing car handling. you will notice magazines never do that =)
Assume they are all the same. Everything the same except frame material. And fork.
And before you get into carbon layups lets go with what they use for the R3.
well the R3 does some neat tricks to make the frame “vertically compliant yet torsionally stiff”
so it may be more comfortable than any non carbon frame with similar handling characteristics.
however there are bikes like the titanflex…
if you want my real opinion I think frame comfort is a red herring. I ride an aluminum frame with no obvious design elements for comfort, a rock hard seat, and gator skin tires and its never an issue.
the key thing with a frame is the paint man =)
Materials aren’t comfortable. Bikes may be. The part that confuses people is that bikes are made from materials. Don’t let people or salesmen draw you into this bullshit discussion.
I wish I could do a double blind test of frames (maybe some liability issues having blindfolded riders). My bet, all things equal (geo, wheels, tires, pressure, fork rake, etc) most folks would have a darn tough time discerning which material they were on. The big difference would be tube diameters, butting / layup.
I wish I could do a double blind test of frames (maybe some liability issues having blindfolded riders). My bet, all things equal (geo, wheels, tires, pressure, fork rake, etc) most folks would have a darn tough time discerning which material they were on. The big difference would be tube diameters, butting / layup.
and even then you will only notice on those bad patches of road.
however some people live in areas where its bad everywhere. I can understand them being fixated on comfort features.