Hi again,

I've used both Aluminium and Steel Cross bikes in the past, and found the Alu one to be much more comfortable...

Now, with the production of Metal Matrix, Titanium, Carbon Fibre, Magnesium and countless other materials, which do you think is the best for cross.

Me personally, I'd go for Titanium, especially the new Morati or Seven framesets that have recently come out

Cheers..................................Rich

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Titanium is undeniably the best material for cross... it will put up with the elements better than the rest and nothing gets more elements than cyclocross.

But you found the alu bike more comfy than steel???? It must have been your setup for frame quality, as steel is universally known as a heck of a lot more comfy.

...echoing LastBoyScout, setup is all important. If comfort is what you're worried about about stick on a comfier saddle and some bigger tyres.

For a 'comfortable frame' I would go for titanium then steel then aluminium.

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.....but it still has to work!

I have a scandium VooDoo 'cross bike and it feels amazing.I guess if you can afford it a Ti. bike would be the best choice.

I have owned many steel CX bikes, 3 aluminum and 1 carbon (ALAN) Steel is definately the most "compliant" not neccesarily most comfy as terrain, tyres and set up can have a huge impact. Carbon forks really help too.

Your tire pressure has more to do with comfort than the frame material (barring extreme cases). When I was training on clinchers here in Colorado, I could NOT train on my GT (big diameter aluminum), it killed my back. So I used my considerably flexier old Colnago (glued and screwed aluminum, with dual downtubes). As soon as I said "to hell with clinchers" and swtiched to training with tubies, I could run a reasonable tire pressure (no fear of pinch flats) and the GT became the training bike too.

As long as you don't have 75psi in your tires, a big tubed aluminum bike should not beat you up.

I design and produce ti-frames. Everyone are unique and designed to every customer. Here in giantic CC-bike. Think 590mm top tube and 220mm head tube...frame had 6 decree slope and it's still 64cm tall C-T! Frame has big diameter tubes so it's stiff. Owner said it's stiffer than his Cannondale mtb with same wheels. (He uses them also in mtb bike previosly, thanks to disks). Owner is 193cm tall with very tall legs.

http://koti.msoynet.com/aturunenmsoy/im ... ature2.JPG

Frame 1980g and fork 610g. Both titanium and canti/disk will do.

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Samu @ www.signature.fi

Carbon is a good choice. I have just finished the prototype below. 1270 grams in 60cm.

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www.crumptoncycles.com

I'd have to say ti frame's are reliable in all condition's. If I was going get real serious about a cross frame I'd buy a frame with carbon rear stay's to take the edge of an aluminum main triangle.

Ti! My commuter with cc-frame below:

Id go ti if you have the $$$. My cross bike is EL OS and I absolutely love the ride. My mtb and road are Ti and I do see a ti cross frame in my distant future, but I am not in a rush to replace it for now. I don't like the AL and Carbon frames I have ridden, but that is preference. I will say that a Carbon fork makes a world of difference, though. I'd take a steel frame/carbon fork over a tiframe/other fork any day.

There are many kind of CF forks. And they are made for average customer. Many of them are bad...

I'd say ti is better for fork. It can be designed to every customer inviduality. I have had 2 ti CC forks and they were different revision but both were good. Rev. 3 is ordered.

And steel is not very good if you use CC as winter training bike. Very thin walls and lot of salt and rocks flying from tyres. And I would take 0.9mm ti wall much more than 0.38mm steel for everyday training.

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Samu @ www.signature.fi

Here is Rev.3. 532g on 260mm 1.1/8" tube.

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Samu @ www.signature.fi

4ZA Python full carbon fork. 424 g cut, superstiff - nuff said.

Could you tell more about it? I haven't heard about it ever. Pix?

More ti...724g steel track bar included to make it UCI legal....

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Samu @ www.signature.fi