Imagine if all road bike manufacturers formed a cartel and only built carbon frames weighing around a thousand grams. A beautiful dream? More like pure boredom. For many bike fans, a racing bike is more than just the sum of its measurements or the decision in favour of a particular material. Design, colours and attention to detail are often equally important reasons for the purchase decision. This is why the road bike market will continue to offer manufacturers every opportunity to give free rein to their imagination. In addition to super-light carbon frames, there will continue to be fine aluminium frames, just as there are niches for handcrafted frames made of steel and titanium - and for mixed-material frames.
Admittedly: The term is a bit unwieldy. The frames themselves, in which the manufacturers combine several materials, are usually beautiful. Back in the 1980s, companies such as Alan, Look, TVT and Vitus glued carbon tubes into aluminium sleeves and built unrivalled lightweight but also very flutter-prone frames. At the end of the 1990s, the topic gained new momentum as more and more manufacturers began to glue prefabricated carbon rear triangles into aluminium frames. In the meantime, some manufacturers are going much further and mixing completely customised frame cocktails from different materials.
In addition to the static measurement values, the quality of material mix constructions depends heavily on how perfectly the manufacturers bond the materials. The bonding points of carbon and metal must be prepared extremely carefully.
From a purely technical point of view, the models tested - with the exception of the LeMond, which is somewhat undersized in the head tube - are in the top league of modern aluminium and carbon frames. However, the high manufacturing costs are expensive: The five racers cost between 4,000 and 7,000 euros. In return, however, you get an inspiring, well-crafted and unique bike.
The frames in this test:
BMC SLT01 Team Replica, Cannondale Six 13, Isaac Force, Lemond Victoire, Specialized Tarmac
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