About fourteen years ago, I started an apprenticeship as a machinist. I had a virgin mind when it came to how things were made, what they were made of and why they were made of it. To me mountain bikes were magic—pieces of art sculpted out of T6-6061 aircraft quality aluminum, 6AL-4V titanium and chrome-moly steel. It was the pinnacle of what the engineering world had to offer, at least that’s what I thought. As time went by I started to learn (through this crazy thing called science) that what I was being fed by my beloved bike companies were not relevant facts, but a mish mash of marketing bullshit. So, for your benefit, I’m going to run through some simple misconceptions so that the next time a dealer feeds you a line about some super-wiz-bag- triple-throw-down caster fork made out of CNC machined T6 6061 aluminum you can take it for what its worth.

Let’s do a little run through starting with chrome-moly. Chrome-moly is steel with a little chromium and molybdenum added for strength. It is no lighter than your run of the mill steel. It’s just a bit stronger, which allows them to use less of it resulting in a lighter product. Fact… chrome-moly and steel weigh the same because they are the same. Next up is aluminum, or as you Brits like to say aluminium. Aluminum like steel and titanium comes in various alloys. The alloys are things that can make the material stronger, more flexible, more resistant to corrosion, etc. Imagine you are cooking a bunch of brownies for a bake sale, some with nuts, some with icing, and some low fat. Now they are all still brownies they just have a few different ingredients or alloys. The funny thing with aluminum is that it would be harder to find a bar or tube of 100% pure aluminum compared to finding an alloy. So, the mystic T6 aluminum is in fact the easiest and one of the cheapest aluminums to acquire.

Now to the wonder metal that is titanium—where do I start? First off, let’s dissect the most popular myth, that titanium is lighter and stronger than steel and aluminum. Titanium is about half the weight of steel; however, its tensile strength (what it takes to rip it apart) is about 20%less than chrome-moly. Compared to say a T6 aluminum, titanium is about 30% heavier but has twice the tensile strength. To me the funny thing about the marketing that goes into titanium wheelchairs is the claim that they are lighter and absorb road vibrations “shock”. In reality, they are no lighter than their aluminum cousins. They could be, if the tubes were “butted” like in a bike (this is where the wall thickness of the tube gets thinner where there is no weld or bend to save weight). However the titanium wheelchair manufactures use “straight gauge tubing,” which really negates the benefits of using this high dollar material. As for road vibrations, please, at three miles an hour the frequency of the vibration is so low that your chair would need to be made out of rubber to see any effect. I guess that’s what tires are for. What I am trying to get at is that any material is only as good as the design behind it. The best analogy that I can think of is to imagine the air force unveiling the latest in fighter plane technology and it is just a crappy old bi plane, but it’s made of titanium and carbon fiber. For me that’s where the wheelchair is, same old design but made out of fancier material.