I agree whole heartedly. I'm a custom builder who uses only steel and I feel the resurgence. Whenever I speak to someone riding a carbon or aluminum bike they just don't feel connected to their bike. I think they want steel but their afraid to be different from their friends. They think steel is old fashioned and heavy until I tell them what my bikes weigh. It gets them thinking. However I like having the one classy bike in a group. However many of my riding buddies are buying my bikes so when I ride with them I'm just one of the crowd.
Dwight
Dwight Bowen
Bowen Bicycle Works
http://www.bowenbicycles.com
(860) 836-9765
bowenbicycles@sbcglobal.net
From: Bianca Pratorius <biankita@comcast.net> Subject: [CR] Stories about the death of steel - highly exagerated To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Date: Thursday, May 14, 2009, 5:20 PM
The future of steel is not just for KOF builders who produce in low numbers, but for mass produced bikes too. I am no futurist, but I feel the handwriting is on the wall. Wind up watches and automatics were having a bad twenty years or so, but now there is an enormous desire for wind-ups in the up scale market. Cotton shirts have made a comeback as have all wool suits. In a few more years the green revolution and a focus on the finer things in life will surely bring back home baked bread, home made sauerkraut and shaving with a straight edge blade. Tubed stereos are going big time as are cotton diapers. Aluminum is a practical but soul-less substitute for steel and carbon fiber is like a computer generated girl-friend or boy-friend when you're really yearning for human flesh. People will return to steel because it's in our iron based hemoglobin blood. People ultimately come back to the things we co-evolved with. The invention of steel is part of our human history, and whether we are talking about kitchen knives, samurai swords, straight edge razors or double butted Columbus tubing ... we have a place in our hearts that can only be filled by this material so eternal.
Garth Libre in Miami Fl. USA