On Aug 6, 2012, at 9:32 PM, Steve Palincsar wrote: > On Mon, 2012-08-06 at 19:21 -0700, ted wrote: >> >> I wouldn't say a complete kook, but a bit kooky maybe. Certainly he >> even describes himself a well outside of mainstream thought on these >> topics. I suspect that "planing" is only mostly settled in the view of >> those who believe Jan (which I doubt is a majority of any relevant >> group except perhaps BQ subscribers). > > > Well outside the "stiffer is always better" school of thought, for sure. > A downright heretic in that respect. As for the rest, don't be so sure: > they referred to what he calls "planing" as "a lively ride" back in the > day, and bikes that had it were highly respected and enjoyed.
True enough. Various aspects of bike frame design have been serially overemphasized over the course of decades, including BB stiffness, chainstay length, chainstay and seatstay diameters, etc. The power loss from BB flex is probably close enough to nil as makes no difference, even with "noodly" frames. I like mine to be stiff enough to make derailleur rub rare because it's annoying, but I've never actually been able to feel any power loss from frame flex. Someone already mentioned Sean Kelly who won monuments and Classics, the maillot vert, the Vuelta a Espana, etc., on one of the most notoriously noodly frames ever made, the Vitus 979. If the frame flex handicapped him, well that's actually just kind of frightening... Allan referenced the idea of a bike frame as a spring which is actually correct. It is a spring. There are several springs on a bike- the frame, the handlebars, the wheels (especially laterally but also radially), the saddle, etc. In the case of bars, frame and radial wheel flex the distances involved are tenths to hundreds of an inch. Lateral wheel flex, especially the rear wheel, can be relatively large (e.g., 1/8 to 1/4 inch) under normal use. A lot of these can be quantified with strain gauges, which might be an interesting study. Can "planing" be objectively measured and compared to the subjective experience? Can all those things affect how a bike feels to ride? Maybe. I think that most are like the princess and the pea, but some people may be more sensitive to these sorts of inputs than me. We all have had the experience of "I like this bike and I don't like that bike." There are a lot of variables that go into that. Some of those might be exactly the kinds of thing Jan writes about, some may not. -- 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.
