Mark,
I have included the relevant phrase from your original message. I shouldn't have used the quotes, as I hadn't gone to the bother of digging up the original post. If I got the intent wrong, I am sorry. I think the majority of experienced riders would say that they have noticed a difference in the ride of different wheelsets that appears to be significantly greater than the differences resulting from tire pressure, tires, and rotating mass.
Can you provide any more information about the lab tests you referenced? Did they measure such factors as the amount of road roughness that is telegraphed through to the hub, or the reaction of the wheel assembly to a major impact? Or did they just measure static deflection under load?
Steve Barner, skeptical in Bolton, Vermont
From: Mark Bulgier <mark@bulgier.net> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: RE: [CR]Twisted spokes Date: Tue, 16 Jul 2002 18:10:56 -0700
--Snip--
>The claims are especially unrealistic with respect to stiffness, because
>even if the spoking pattern could double the stiffness (an absurd
suggestion
>no one is claiming), no one would notice. That's because all wheels are,
>for all practical purposes, infinitely stiff vertically already. Any
>vertical give they have is masked by the give in the tires, which is
>probably a hundred times greater. Vertical stiffness of wheels can be
>measured in the lab, but the differences are beyond the range of human
>perception. By the way, tied-and-soldered was not found to have any effect
--Snip--
>Mark Bulgier
>Seattle, Wa
>USA
----- Original Message #2 ----- > From: Mark Bulgier <mark@bulgier.net>
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Subject: RE: [CR]T&S Spoking
> Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2002 22:00:02 -0700
>
--Snip
> Not sure whom you're quoting there but I think it may be me, so I should
> protest, I never said wheels are "infinitely stiff in the vertical plane."
> I even explicitly said the stiffness difference between wheels was
> measurable - therefore obviously finite. The thing you call "ludicrous to
> think", no one here is thinking.