Holy ****, it's spelled "Bontrager" and while it was great for the time, you're talking about a frame with 20 year old geometry.

 

I finally LOLed at gmote. I havent laughed that hard at a thread since:

-NOS energy drink purchased at auto parts store and poured into motorcycle
-Failflora's build thread
-Jared's build thread
-Techsalvager's thread.

 

Why should I dump my new MTB for this? I don't really give a **** about equipment, I give a **** about pedaling.
This is cycling man, everything is better than what you have, buy buy buy.

 

This isn't even a case of newest/fastest/lightest. He's talking about a 20-year old steel frame. Steel frames can be awesome and I love the feel, and this was especially true 20 years ago when your other options were getting beat to hell by a large-diameter tube aluminum frame, or spending 3x as much for a carbon fiber frame that felt like it was made of wood or a titanium frame that flexed like a spring.

But in the last 20 years, frame-building methods and technologies have advanced. Aluminum frames can be stiff and comfy. Carbon fiber frames can be lightweight, strong, and have a lively feel. Titanium tubing can be shaped into frames that are stiff, efficient, and still retain some of that springy Ti feeling. And above all, the standard geometry has been adjusted to properly accommodate modern long-travel forks.

Unless you owned an original Bontrager and are trying to recapture some kind of nostalgia, there's absolutely no reason to buy one now. Even if you decide that steel frames are the coolest*, there's plenty of modern options at reasonable prices.





*For what it's worth, I kind of do think steel frames are the coolest, or at least they appeal to my sensibilities. I like that what seems like the most common or utilitarian material can be made into a high-performance frame that competes with Alu, Ti, and CF frames while providing arguably the best riding characteristics. I've owned Dekerf, Landshark, Curtlo, and Primus Mootry custom hand-welded steel frames and loved them all. Steel is real blah blah blah.

 

Why buy a 20 year old hardtail over hardtail 29er? The constant attitude of "you should get something better" among road and mountain bike people makes me ******* sick and I really get tired of hearing it, constantly.

More importantly, I don't think I'll ever buy a carbon bike because metal is more attractive in so many more ways for someone like me. I'll always run a carbon fork on a road bike, but I'll take the metal frame. I'm pretty happy with the road-bike I have now and can think of no reason to upgrade, but if I did it would probably be a Russ Denny built Ritte.

like:


There's no real reason for me to buy either of those other than the sex appeal.

 

Here we have a Martini Porsche inspired Baum:

 

It's difficult to weld to carbon fiber or titanium. Al and Fe3C are much easier to work with.

 

Wait, wut?

 

What, you're saying it's easy?

 

I dont think epoxy counts as welding.

 

Of course not, what a stupid thing to suggest.

[derp]

Hey, let's just use some glue to stick this thing to this other thing. It'll be strong, right?

[/derp]

 

I DD an R-Package. You just have a delicate bum.

 

I went to high school with Kurt Bontrager. was the bike dude's nephew.

now all they make are tires.

 

I liked Trek's early attempts at building carbon fiber frames. They couldn't figure out how to make the joints with the carbon fiber tubes, so they just jammed the ends of the tubes over internal aluminum lugged joints. Nothing takes better advantage of carbon fiber's properties than bonding it to a hard edged surface, right? Can anyone guess where the frames typically broke?

 

Right in the middle of the trail, miles from civilization.

 

The only one I've seen break (small sample size) was at the chainstay, where it debonded from the bottom bracket.

However, I have to say that I loved my carbon/aluminum 8700. Still built in the USA at the time, and amazing internal detail work on those lugs.

 

To be honest, I think the durability problem was somewhat exaggerated. Okay, they weren't as durable as a traditional steel frame, but then neither were the early aluminum frames like Klein.

On the other hand, when the CF frames did break, they often did so in spectacular fashion. A friend of mine was hit by a car while riding a Trek OCLV frame...it didn't so much break as disintegrate.

 

Enough with the bikes, hippies.

 

Carbon *** splinters for everyone!

I think in "normal use" there's not usually a problem (Bustedcarbon.com might disagree). But, yeah, crash one and you might have a big problem. Also, after a decent, but survivable, impact, the carbon's integrity starts to come into question.

 

You know, I have questions about that photo.

Is that guy really concerned about the security of his identity? What might someone learn if they could see his eyes? If concealing his identity is a concern, why one skinny little line over his eyes? Wouldn't anyone who knows him probably be able to identify him based on the hairline and sideburns and Adidas Sambas AND THE FACT THAT HE'S RIDING A DOUBLE DECKER BIKE?