At 05:54 AM 12/30/2008, you wrote: >I am interested in what design >considerations go into making a frame more rear-weight than front- >weight friendly.
Wheel flop/trail are the main considerations that I know of. As I understand it, trail (the distance between the tire-ground contact patch and where the headset turning axis would hit the ground) effects handling in that the larger the trail, the more the front wheel wants to go straight. High trail is, in that sense, stabilizing. However, the more trail you have, the more wheel flop you have. Wheel flop comes from the way that the wheel lowers itself slightly when you turn it any direction from straight. Gravity pulls the bike into wheel flops, so wheel flop tends to de-stabilize bikes. At high speed, the stabilizing effects of high trail dominate. At low speeds and high front loads (more weight, more flop) the de-stabilizing effects of wheel flop dominate. Since high trail and wheel flop go together, a bike that tracks beautifully at high speed may be very difficult to control at low speed. I have one bike with high trail that is perfectly fine 99% of the time, and pleasant 95% of the time. But with a front load and going up hill, it just wheel flops all over the place - I have to get off and walk it rather than risk driving into traffic. At least this is my understanding. This understanding might be completely wrong. If so, I would love to be corrected. - Doug "Anonymous" Shaker --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Bicycle Lifestyle" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/bicyclelifestyle?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
