Not that anyone cares, but regarding that beautifully-translated NEMO hype:
FEM is 'Finite Element Method', i.e. they used a computer program to simulate the stress in a bike frame - just like BICYCLING! did back in 1982 or so, where they compared steel, titanium, and Klein-style large-diameter aluminum.
But all the lies used in the simulation ('estimated' values of material properties and exerted forces) typically cause the results to be crap, so you have to do strain-gauge measurements on an actual frame with your portable what-have-you, to calibrate everything. Result: a map of plausible stresses in the frame.
Then they presumably thickened the stressed areas and thinned the unstressed areas.
By then, their Butts were totally Zoned by the Concept, hence: ZBC.
Brad "Cholesky Decomposition" Stockwell Palo Alto
-----Original Message----- <NEMO emerged in 1996 and is the most sophisticated expression of cycling engineering: from a study on stress applied to the frame, produced using a portable recording system and with the subsequent FEM calculation (Finished Elements Measurement) the map of stresses in the frame and the ZBC technology (Zone Butted Concept) emerged. Reinforcements were located and adjusted to the actual work load.>
huh?!
e-RICHIE