Steel is almost twice as heavy as titanium, nearly 3 times the weight of aluminum, and mang times denser than carbon fiber.
   Yet the steel–tube Steelman/RayMac weighs just 19.65 pounds, which ties the Kestrel EMS as the lightest complete bike in this test. More amazingly, this is only partly due to its featherweight parts, including Nuke Proof carbon fiber hubs with Ringle Ti(tanium) Stix skewers, an MRC titanium seatpost (245 grams) and stem (168 grams), an array of titanium bolts from Specialized Racing Products, a Cook Bros. Racing crankset (643 grams with SR Platinum alloy rings) and titanium bottom bracket (186 grams), and a costly Campagnolo alloy 7–speed freewheel (253 grams). If Steelman had opted for sub–500–gram Ritchey WCS tires instead of 600–gram Bajas from team Sponsor Continental, titanium rather than chrome–moly pedal axles, and squishy–but–light CLB alloy cable housing like the Kestrel, his bike would have smashed the 19–pound barrier.
  The real wowzer comes when frame weights are compared. At 3.30 pounds, the Steelman is exactly 23 grams (the weight of 4 quarters) heavier than the Kestrel, and it´s lighter than the McMahon titanium by a whopping half pound. When forks are factored in, the Steelman´s frameset, at 4.65 pounds, is the lightest of the bunch—a substantial quarter–pound less than the Kestrel and Klein.
   Builder Brent Steelman was able to push the Limits of steel frame construction by using an exceptional tubing: French–made Excell HR. This nickel–chrome–manganese blend boasts the highest strength (200,100 psi tensile, 171,000 psi yield) of any bicycle steel, which means it can be drawn with wall thicknesses that would court disaster in a lesser alloy. Plus, it is relatively unaffected by the brazer´s torch. This combination lets Steelman get away witht straight–gauge tubes of 1 1/8–inch diameter x 0.4–mm wall thickness for the top and seat tubes, 1 1/4 inch x 0.45 mm for the down tube, 18–mm x 0.4–mm seatstays, 0.6–mm chainstays, and 1–inch x 0.75–mm fork blades. (Excell offers straight–gauge tubes in wall increments of 0.05 mm down to 0.3 mm, and also makes butted tubing.)
  To further bolster front–end strength without adding weight, Steelman vertically ovalizes the top and down tubes at the head tube joint. In the interest of saving every possible gram, the stays are left unfilled at the Everest dropouts, the rear dropouts are Swiss–cheesed, and a lightening "S" is cut in the Everest Investment–cast bottom bracket shell.
  The frame is assembled by fillet brazing, which uses lower heat than TIG welding. The small, even fillets are visible because, in the interest of saving 3–4 ounces, Steelman left the frame unpainted. Instead, he clear–coated it with Aqua Net hairspray, thus producing the

world´s first scratch–and–sniff bicycle. The tubes stayed shiny during our test, which fortunately coincided with a month–long dry spell. Stock bikes, including the El Gato from which our project bike draws its 71/73–degree head/seat tube angles and other frame dimensions, are offered in your choice of 2 appropriate mountain bike shades—black or blue.
   Excell–s steel alloy might be strong enough to allow paper–thin tubes, but the high tensile and yield figures do nothing for rigidity, which is solely a function of a tube´s wall thickness and diameter. As a result, this project bike was more than a little compliant (to put it charitably), making it the least viable of the 4. On the plus side, it was even smoother over bumps than a shop bike equipped with a suspension fork, based on some runs over a test bed of 2x4s.
  However, with its trail–leveling resilience came an equally dramatic amount of flex at the bottom bracket and through the top and down tubes. This made precise slow–speed singletracking a challenge, and high–speed descending downright scary. But then, we did ask for a really light bike. Standard El Gato bikes are made of stouter stuff, with 0.55–mm top and down tubes, a 0.8/0.5–mm butted seat tube, 0.7–mm stays, and 28.6x0.8–mm forks. According to Steelman, this yields a 4.1–pound frame in our 19.5–inch test size, with a 1.5–pound fork. And, I imagine, a lot less "excitement" on screaming descents.
  (Thanks to Cambria Bicycle Outfitters in Cambria, California, and Another Bike Shop in Santa Cruz, California, for contributing componentry.)