Frame Materials Part 2 ( steel )

Is steel real, well I say it is the real deal. Steel has been used to make bicycles longer then any other material. And many say that if steel was NEW then everyone would want a steel bike, the problem is that steel is not new and many people think that it is a traditional and old material, but not at the cutting edge. Well they are wrong and right, steel is an older material and plain old 4130 might not be so cutting edge, but with materials like 859/953/platinum ox and the such the steel of today is not quite the same as the steel of the old. And here is a little thing, the tubing we are using in bikes is not even the most advanced steel out there we just dont have the demand to source the newest stuff, so if customer demand went the industry could afford to get the majical steels that are out there.
Some of the factors we look at when looking at materials are Stiffness, well steel is stiffer then aluminum and Ti. Density, Steel is more dense the aluminum or Ti. When we look at these to factor the stiffness to weight ratio is about the same between the 3 materials. Wait a miniute, the bike shop I went in said that this cheap hybrid was an upgrade because it is aluminum and it would be lighter, well I guess you should have went to a better bike shop.
One of the last things to look at is tensil strength, for the most part the minimum tube used in a good steel frame is aircraft 4130 which has a tensil stgrength of 90,000 ksi, strong enough for most applications, need more then just upgrade the tubeset for the needed strength.
lets not forget that steel rides nice, and last a lifetime. It can rust out, so take care of it and it wont. You can wreck it and it will usually hold up, if it dont you can have it repaired. and by choosing different tubes and having a custom build you can get it to do about anything you want.
Steel is a great option, next time lets look at Aluminum and see if its all its CRACKED up to be.