i agree with jan, as i too have felt the subtle differences in the ride of different, lighter, heavier, and tubed framesets. unlike jan, i can't quantify a damn thing.
but...my all carbonated Fisher Cronus does not have the most forgiving feel in how it rides as it is one stiff mofo. but...it is 5 lbs lighter than my nearest steel bike and out of the saddle climbing and accelleration from a dead stop do "seem" markedly quicker. you see i put "seem" in quote marks. is it not possible that degrees of how a bike feels relative to weight is correlated with where the weight is located? just a thought. On Mar 18, 7:52 am, Jan Heine <hein...@earthlink.net> wrote: > > i can almost guarantee if you reduce bike weight by 5 lbs, you > > will both notice and enjoy the difference. > > I am not sure that bike weight matters much by itself. My bike rides > the same whether I carry only a spare tube in the handlebar bag or am > loaded down with 10 lbs of food and clothes for a 600 km brevet. (Yes, > you can measure the difference on a long climb, but it doesn't change > how the bike feels, nor how much I enjoy the ride.) > > That said, I really dislike riding bikes with heavy frames. Not > because they weigh more, but because they feel different. Call it > "lively feel" or "planing," there is a joy to a high-performance bike > that is absent from a bike that is overbuilt and too stiff for the > purpose. Putting lighter parts on a heavy frame doesn't make a > difference... > > In the 1960s and early 1970s, time trial bikes were equipped with > drilled-out components and even cantilever brakes to save weight. > (Remember <a href="http://www.bikequarterly.com/rebour.html";>Merckx' > hour record bike</a>?) The conventional wisdom was that a TT bike had > to be as light as possible, even on a flat course. Of course, we all > know that the bike's weight matters little in a flat time trial, but > the old wisdom probably had some underlying grain of truth. I am sure > that I would have preferred to ride at a constant, all-out effort on > the superlight frame of a TT bike than on the heavier frame of a > standard racing bike, because of its "lively feel" or "planing," and > not because of the holes drilled into the chainrings! > > Jan Heine > Editor > Bicycle Quarterlyhttp://www.bikequarterly.com > > Follow our blog athttp://janheine.wordpress.com/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
