i love my new bike - stiff stiff stiff!

heh, that's a Honda Pilot - from a dealership called Nardy.

HAHAHAHA!!!  I like that one! 

You can't make up this stuff...awesome that you traded up for a sweet bike.

Loving your bike makes riding so much more fun..hills are easier..get that compact crank on it and you'll be rocking those CT hills even more.

Seems like the bike was meant for you 

welcome to steel

Now that you have tasted it, all other frames will feel dead to you.  You have been ruined (in a good way) 

heh, i wish it were steel, then i'd feel even more bike snobby.    but it's actually some sort of super aluminum, they triple forge it or something so they can keep it light and stiff, despite being aluminum.  and i can really feel the difference. 

Sounds like you've never ridden titanium!

It's alum. with a carbon fork and carbon stays ... nothing steel in it ........ Fondriest pretty much never had any real steel bikes in their line.  They've always built in alum. and carbon.

Congrats on the upgrade!  Loving your ride is important as it means you will want to get out on it even more.

then it's probably scandium (AL alloy).  Scandium is really sexy stuff too.  It's like steel's red headed step brother.

Titanium is nice and all, but it just doesn't have any soul. 

i just googled around, and found this description of the frame-making process.  i really don't know what it means, but i'll post it anyway:

Frames of absolute integrity and durability

During the TIG welding of Dedacciai U2 aluminum, the heat from the welding process causes severe brittleness to the alloy of more than a centimeter in both directions from the weld bead. This brittleness and subsequent loss of strength are severe limiters to the life span of the frame and the integrity of the entire structure.

The process Water Quenching Fondriest (U107) reverses this negative effect and guarantees a homogenous structure with greater rigidity and durability than U2 based frames that do not receive this treatment.

WQF consists of a 3-part process that takes over 72 hours to execute:

1. The frame is rapidly heated to 470 degrees Celsius in 20 minutes. The frame is then immersed in a water/glycol solution of 20 degrees Celsius for 20 seconds. Suspended particles, resulting from the TIG welding, are returned to the original crystal structure of the alloy.
2. The frame is heated to 90 degrees Celsius for 6 hours and then cooled for 24 hours.
3. The frame is heated to 150 degrees Celsius for 18 hours and then cooled for 24 hours.

The Carb Level U107, which features the PSA Carbon seat stay unit, is processed as a full AL frame. After WQF, the original AL seat stay is removed and the PSA unit installed. The result of this process is a frame of absolute integrity and durability. We have measured our frames against competing brands and the data leads to a clear understanding:

Water Quenching Fondriest adds significant cost to our U2 based frames but the end result is better durability, strength and ride quality.

after 3 attempts and reading your reply I decided to actually google stuff.  Looks like U2 Al is similar to scandium, but Dedacciai's version. SC7000 is an Easton product.  So....in the world of frame materials it's still sexy.

regardless, sounds like an awesome bike 

And, I repeat, Sounds like you've never ridden titanium!

I've ridden them all, and by far aluminum/scandium is at the bottom of my "like to ride" list.

I have not had a chance to ride an alum/carbon composite before, so it might actually move up on the scale if I did.

My personal likes in frame order?

Steel, Carbon, Ti, Aluminum.

But both my bikes are carbon right now, and I'm actually in the process of rebuilding my road bike with another lighter/stiffer carbon frame (not that the TCR wasn't stiff).  And Bear ...... I just kept losing out on bids for Vortex's and Ghisallo's ..... otherwise it would have been a Ti frame I'd be building up right now.

Denise2003 - 2008-04-25 11:20 AM Drat! lisa airbrushed out her license plate....

that's actually not mine.  but i did it anyway.  figured whose it is likes their privacy. 

Now that you have the Fondriest, you should change your user name to LisaZapUpdaHills.  Great story.  Great bike.

TW