Friday, September 02, 2005

what's my frame made of?

upon inspection; there are many different metals that your bike is able to be made out of.
here is what i found out about some of them...

scandium- silver-white metal; which turns yellowish or pinkish when exposed to air. relatively soft. resembles yttrium (with in this there are two compounds used to make the red in your tv) more than aluminium or titanium. rare material, very light metallic. often used to make high-intensity light. often found in scandinavia. never found as a free metal. interestingly it is found more abundantly in the sun and stars.

titanium- light, strong, corrosion resistant. strong as steel, but is 45% the weight; however 60% heavier than aluminum. it has a high melting point. all these things make it resilient to usual metal fatigue. after being bombarded with deuterons it will admit gamma rays; use caution if this happens, you know what happened to bruce banner? often coupled with aluminum to refine the grain size.

nitanium- from what i found; it is a nickel/titanium compound. its what is know as a SMA (shape memory alloy) metal that "remembers" its geometry. after it is formed it is able to go back to its original geometry after being heated. not a lot found out about this metal specifically.

aluminum- silver metal part of the poor metal group of chemical elements. major resistance to oxidation, strong, & light weight. one-third dense as steel. easily machined and cast. its resistance is due to its oxide layer. and remember if anyone tries to sell you a bike and states that "this aluminum is the same aluminum that NASA uses on their aircraft." so is the pop can or beer can in your frig.

steel- its major component is iron mixed with carbon acting as a hardening agent. the amount of carbon controls the quality of the steel keeping the iron where it needs to be. it is an iron based alloy that can be plastically formed, or if you will molded into shape.

i hope this helps if your looking into bikes and say to yourself what the hell is this? what the frame is made out of is a major factor to your bike. it dictates the feel of the ride. do you want something that is stiff or something more forgiving. the ride is personal, so should be the feel.

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