When we source bikes for the shop, we look first at steel. Not out of sentimentality — out of pragmatism. A steel frame from 1989 can be a reliable daily rider in 2025 with the right component refresh.
There is a moment when you’re descending a rutted fire road on a steel hardtail — the frame flexing just slightly beneath you, absorbing what the fork doesn’t, feeding information back through the pedals and bars — where you understand something that no spec sheet has ever communicated. Steel is not slower. Steel is more honest.
The Properties
Cromoly — chromium-molybdenum steel — has a yield strength that allows the tubing to flex and return. That flex is not a flaw. Engineers in the 1980s who were building the first true mountain bikes understood this: a frame that moves with the terrain is a frame that transmits less shock to the rider. The bike becomes part of the suspension system.
Modern carbon fiber is stiffer, lighter, and optimized for race-day power transfer. That’s exactly right for its purpose. But for trail riding, urban commuting, and the kind of all-day adventure riding that defines the Bicyclious ethos, stiffness is sometimes the wrong virtue.
Catastrophic failure
Carbon frames are perfectly repairable. The skills and tooling to do so are rare. Shoot, you can DIY carbon crack repairs at home: Do it Yourself Broken Carbon Bike Repair!.
But the real problem with carbon is knowing a failure is coming. Detecting immanent failures on steel or aluminum is much easier than with carbon, as is finding someone who can repair such a frame material. Beyond “coin tapping” carbons diagnostic tooling requires endoscopes and ultrasonic tester. And most folks do not have that but naked eye visual inspection is performable by anyone not blind, and they could probably use the hands to find bent metal.
Sophisticated carbon fiber mixed weaves seemingly prevent catastrophic failure, by including in the woven carbon fibers things like dynema and kevlar. So, great, Time’s frames at around $5,000 for a frame are sweet.
The Weight Question
Yes, a cromoly steel frame weighs more than an equivalent aluminum or carbon frame. The weight difference on a complete bike is usually one to two pounds. On the trails where these bikes are ridden, that weight is not the variable that determines how fast or how far you go. Fitness, skill, and the quality of your line choices matter more than two pounds of steel.
The rider who obsesses over frame weight and ignores everything else has their priorities inverted.
The Conclusion
Every bike in the Bicyclious stable starts with a steel frame because steel frames last, flex correctly, can be repaired, and ride in a way that keeps you connected to the ground beneath you. That’s not nostalgia. That’s engineering that happens to align with how we want to ride.