snipped: On Mon, 03 Jun 2002 09:12:19 -0600 Michael Kone <bikevint@tiac.net> writes: <...Because one of the main - if not the main - drawing card of steel frames is the sweet ride they provide. If people are numb to the ride and the fun feel of a great frame, than at some point why not ride a stiff aluminum frame with a carbon fork and call it a day. If framebuilders ever loose sight of ability to tune the ride in steel for a wonderful pleassurable ride than I'm afraid the future of great steel bikes is rather dim.> Mike Kone in Boulder CO
yikes! i think the 'sweet ride', if you will comes from the material, and perhaps the frame's design, too. not from the guage or the butt profile, as mike had suggested before. i think, as frame materials (the steels discussed...) go, there is little difference in the 'feel' of the bicycle among the quality sets and types mentioned. some pipes are, in and of themselves, stronger, lighter, more ductile, have different elongation factors, etcetera. i'm just not buying that these differences affect the 'feel' of the bicycle. make some substitutions-some bicycles last longer, some weigh less. that's where it starts and stops for me. and... i have never "tuned in the ride in steel for a wonderful pleasureable ride..." vis-a-vis* the tube sets or guages. i don't even know what that means. e-RICHIE chester, ct *...just wanted to use "vis-a-vis" in a sentence.