On 06/20/2014 02:36 PM, Tim McNamara wrote:
Yes, the design is the major factor in terms of how the bike handles and
rides... however. The tubing diameter and wall thickness directly influence
the stiffness (or perhaps more accurately the spring rate) of each tube. This
in turn will affect the bike's response to loading whether from weight put on
the bike or dynamic loading from pedaling, etc. Take a Roadeo and put 100 lbs
of stuff in panniers on it and compare it to the same size Atlantis with the
same load and the bikes will tolerate those loads differently; the odds are
that the Atlantis will handle much better because the frame won't flex as much
from the load.
That's an extreme case, though, and for most aspects of the riding experience*the effects
of frame design will be more prominent than whether the belly of the tube is .07 or .08*.
However, on interwebs forums you'll find a lot of argument to the contrary from the
princess and the pea crowd. I remember one guy on rec.bicycles hollering blue bloody
murder because his custom bike came with a top tube like 3 mm off spec center to center
and how the builder "ruined" his bike. I am so glad that I am not as sensitive
to these things and too ignorant to know the difference.
But you are comparing extreme cases here. The "standard duty" tubing
wall thickness was 9/6/9 -- i.e., the belly of the tube is .06. A very
light gauge tube set has .04 wall thickness, and the ultra-light tube
sets even went down to .03. The heavy duty touring tube set was 10/7/10.
So you're saying you won't be able to tell whether the tube is a very
stiff heavy duty tube set, or an ultra stiff superheavy duty tube set.
That's right: both will seem "damned stiff." However, if you compared
that 10/7/10 tube set with a 7/4/7 tube set, you almost certainly would
notice the difference, and quite a big difference, too; and you wouldn't
have to be a princess, either. The goatherd could tell that difference.
Sorry I couldn't send this while I was at Bike Virginia; too many words
to thumb in on my rooted Nook Simple Touch!
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW
Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
