Your next road bike needn't be carbon: could steel, titanium or aluminum be a better choice?

Carbon is often seen as the default option - but a metal bike brings with it a lot of benefits

Hallet Road Fast
(Image credit: Future)

There are many decisions to make when buying a new road bike. Perhaps the most important of those is which frame material to choose. After all, the frameset is the heart of your bike, helping to define the overall ‘ride quality’ more than any other component.

When it comes to frame material there are four very distinct options: carbon, aluminium, steel and titanium. For many of us when we’re thinking about a modern road bike the discussion starts and ends with carbon. This is perhaps unsurprising. After all, it’s the material of choice for the professional peloton, the natural influencers for many roadies. There’s also bags of choice; carbon road bike frames are usually front and centre of all the major brand’s road bike line-ups. And of course it’s the lightest of all the frame materials, a selling point that still carries plenty of weight for most road enthusiasts out there.

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