In a message dated 5/31/02 2:12:12 PM Eastern Daylight Time, jac33@tron.arts.cornell.edu writes:
> Hi all. I spoke with a local frame builder about this a while back, and
> he reported the results of a very interesting "blind" study done at
> Cornell with the Cornell cycling team,
If I accept the conclusions one would tend to draw from this blind test, I have to toss out my personal impressions which are the result of years of riding a large variety of different bikes made of different materials. But, my conclusions are biased, perhaps, by the nature of my testing - whereas the Cornell tests are "blind", which is significant.
Since exotic tubing sets are more expensive than "HiTen gaspipe" tubings, isn't there a real opportunity for some enterprising framebuilder, or company, to lower costs dramatically by using the cheaper tubing and applying his craftsmanship towards building the best bike possible with the cheaper components ? Pass some of this cost savings on to customers and keep some for extra marginal profitability.
Why do the list's framebuilders, who MonkeyLad points out agree more or less with him that the tubing grade is not significant to the ride quality (compared to other factors) all use butted special tubings, despite the extra materials costs ?
Glenn Jordan - Durham, NC