In a message dated 12/2/2002 4:44:48 PM Eastern Standard Time, Grant.McLean@SportingLife.ca writes:
<< It won't be that much longer before steel is "new" again, and people will rush to it as the next wonder material. Many young cyclists have never owned a steel bike, and at some point the marketing of steel will find a new audience with them. >>
There is an odd phenomenon taking place already with steel bicycles (I am talking complete "popularly priced" bikes not custom frames) being re-introduced to the semi masses (meaning bike shop customers, not the true masses at Walmart)
In my position as a bike shop owner, I am seeing the steel appeal coming back in a couple of ways..
First it seems to have been embraced by a counter culture alternative lifestyle group, band members, messengers, tattooed younger X gen folk as a non-mainstream material for bikes. Brands like Surly, Soma, Independent, have struck a chord in this group as "different" and more desirable than the yuppie mainstream aluminum/carbon crowd... The other group is us ... Or at least our contemporaries, baby boomers, who are not vintage inclined but think/know/steel is more comfortable and has better road feel than those STIFF-is-good-materials. This market is addressed by LeMond, Specialized's 2003 steel models as well as Bianchi and other companies who a re bringing back one or two steel choices among all the aluminum stuff.
All this cannot hurt the public's general appreciation of the steel bikes of old....?
Dale Brown cycles de ORO, Inc. 1410 Mill Street Greensboro, North Carolina USA 27408 336-274-5959 Fax 336-274-6360 <A HREF="http://www.cyclesdeoro.com">cyclesdeORO.com</A> <A HREF="http://www.classicrendezvous.com/main.htm">Classic Rendezvous</A>