Thread: handlebar
View Single Post
  #68  
Old January 14th 18, 11:23 PM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Andre Jute[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 10,422
Default handlebar

On Sunday, January 14, 2018 at 7:01:32 PM UTC, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Wed, 10 Jan 2018 02:38:48 +0100, Emanuel Berg
wrote:

Take one piece of aluminium and one piece
of stainless steel and hold it in ur hand -
they must be the same size, you can feel
the weight different: aluminium is much
lighter, while stainless is much heavier.


It depends on the type of stainless steel. Exotic alloys, complex
heat treatment, and a lengthy annealing process, will produce a
stainless steel that is quite strong and suitable for bicycle frames
(and by implication, handlebars):
http://www.kvastainless.com/tubing-info.html
http://www.kvastainless.com/bicycles/
http://www.kvastainless.com/technical-library.html

The problem is that while steel is fairly cheap, the necessary
elements needed to make stainless (nickel, chromium, vanadium,
silicon, manganese, phosphor, sulfur, etc) will raise the cost. As an
added bonus, stainless work hardens very easily, making fabrication
difficult and expensive.
http://www.qtstools.com/TechInfo/SAE%20steel%20grades.htm

Ferro-chrome ore (which contains about 50-75% chromium), sells for
$2.80/kg (Oct 2017 prices).
http://www.infomine.com/investment/metal-prices/ferro-chrome/
while iron ore runs about $0.30/kg.
http://www.infomine.com/investment/metal-prices/iron-ore-fines/
Very roughly, that would make 20% Chromium stainless cost about
$5.00/kg, while a simple high carbon steel, would be about 1/10th the
prices of stainless.


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D
http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558


Wrong viewpoint, I think, Jeff. Observably bikes in bicycle-type butted tubes of stainless steel don't cost ten or however many times as much as a bike in other alloys of steel made to the same pattern by the same maker. P&P Noblex stainless (no longer made though you can still get a bike in Noblex if you know where to go) and Reynolds (several stainless lines compared he http://road.cc/content/news/98763-re...beset-revealed ) (1) stainless bikes certainly cost more than straight steel bikes but not magnitudes, nor even whole multiples in most cases. I went into this when I was trying to get my smalltube frame design built, when I discovered that stainless could in fact be a cheap option compared to some aeronautics-grade mild steels.

(1) There was a third maker of stainless tube sets for bicycles just starting up about ten, twelve years ago when I was taking an interest. I don't know whether they ever made much of a mark.

Andre Jute
The only thing about German steel bike I don't like is their virtue-signalling, Gaia butt-kissing, waterbased paint, though in practice it has worked well for my bikes, which live in a heated space and hardly ever see loose gravel. I like hard, chip resistant, oven-baked paints. Once a hotrodder, always a Duco-lover.

Ads
 

Home - Home - Home - Home - Home