Ok, apologies if I didn't fill you in on a usage profile. I'm really only going to use it for riding around town so urban usage - no interest in cross country or downhill at all. Geometry? I always thought that that is catered for fully via changing the saddle or handlebar positions and if necessary, buying a new stem? What about the weight angle - has anyone any URLs or figures on typical weights for Fe vs Al frames?
And FWIW, steel is always going to be a winner in my book, especially Tange Prestige and OX Platinum.
Sounds very similar to when Burton was developing the snowboard back in the day and we would get banned from mountains for being out of control snowboarders.
If you want FAST and can go down to a high volume 2.2, I've been very impressed with the Panaracer Driver 29Pro. Lateral grip is excellent. I've only tried it on the rear so far (325+miles), but am loving it so much that I bought another. My review here: http://www.mtbr.com/cat/tires-and-wheels/29er-tire/panaracer/driver-29-pro/prd_488186_1564crx.aspx edit: Bought them from ebikestop.com for $40 and they ship quickly.
don't confuse Geometry with Fit. Geometry refers to Head Tube Angle, Fork Rake/Trail, wheelbase; things that more affect handling. what you were describing relates to fitting the bike to you. as for weight; if you're only going to be riding it around town, the difference in materials weight shouldn't even be a significant consideration.
I'll agree with that. I fought off the couch monster and rode on over to the bank. Massive headwind would be an understatement. ...but the tailwind getting back was worth it! M
Did an hour and a half solo in the pissing rain as it got dark. Got completely soaked, covered in road grime from passing trucks and still arrived home with a smile on my face. Hardest part of winter riding is the first pedal stroke, after that I'm good. Managed 500 miles for January.
Ya got me beat by 7.36mi on the month. (sorta. Didn't get my Edge 500 till the 10th) Guess I shouldn't have slacked off those few days. M
Thanks for the tip! I'll check those out. And while you guys are talking about frame materials... Is anyone here the lucky owner of one of these rare bikes - Rhygin Towards the tail end of their existence they were producing frames out of Columbus Metax tubing (stainless steel).
I -ed over those Rhygins Never knew anyone that had one tho. You wanna talk about 'little known' Grove Innovations was it. I've seen one (1) of em. It was like this one (not the same paint job thank doG!) with a steel DT that was the width of the BB shell. :eek1 You wanna talk STIFF! M
I've got a Rhygin Stainless road bike. Bought it new in '98. That Rasta is a beauty. I've never seen another Rhygin in the wild.
I'd imagine that you did more than 7 miles in ten days, so you got me beat, easily. I'm thinking that a 10 000 km year is a good possibility for me. It'd be nice if it stopped raining sometime this year.
I remember Grove! Mostly for that bar/stem combo. Never saw one in the flesh but those down tubes remind of the these - You bastid! Rhygins were/are on my bucket list of bikes to own (along with the original WTB Phoenix, an original Yo Eddy with the "Big 1 inch" fork, and a Sycip with those mitered stays). At the time those bikes were available, I was too damn poor to buy one.
When I worked for a framebuilder in PA we saw Grove frames and that Hammerhead bar/steam. Oversized, thinwall chrom-mo frames sound great. But really, they weren't as thin-walled as you'd think and they were plenty heavy. They were unique with that multi-shaped tube, though. There wasn't much in the way of shaped chro-mo back then. We weighed one for a customer and then I picked a Raleigh Peak (bonded aluminum) with XT (this was before XTR IIRC) on it and weighed it. And watched his face fall. They were stiff and for those short, wicked steep climbs out east they were well suited. That yuppie-flage paint, not so much.
Aluminum is about a third the stiffness of steel given the same section. And it weighs about a third as much as steel. What that means is basically you need about the same weight of aluminum to get the stiffness of steel. The proof in the final assembly is testing the, both. Weighing them only gives you a peak that maybe one is not as stiff as you may think. Another property of aluminum is fatigue strength. It doesn't have much until you make the leap into the 70-series. Welding metals makes for all sorts of assumptions of what is going on. Those old bonded aluminum French frames felt pretty whippy to my old racers legs back in the day. I stayed away. The Cannondales are/were large diameter and said to be post-weld heat treated. They sure were stiff. I think it was Lehigh or Pitt that built a bicycle torture rack that would flex the BB side to side to evaluate fatigue and try to correlate the analysis with this testing. As I recall it worked pretty well. This back before we had fancy NASTRAN to mesh structures. It took me a long, long time to become comfortable enough with the manufacturing techniques and materials to break loose the money for a CF framed bike. I love it as a road machine. It is comfortable yet a little stiff of ride. No perceptible sway when climbing, and light. My old steel hand made Italian steed feels like a sled in comparison and a wobbling, flexiflyer at that.
The risk benefit analysis doesn't quite add up for me.:eek1 <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TaNBuqSuNqk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
