[CR]RE: intro... now: frame geometry

(Example: Component Manufacturers)

Content-class: urn:content-classes:message
Date: Sun, 20 May 2007 19:36:03 -0400
In-Reply-To: <8C9693BA807914E-7EC-7D4F@webmail-de18.sysops.aol.com>
Thread-Topic: intro... now: frame geometry
Thread-Index: AcebJInav//TzYD6S+6zbY/AqsgnDgAEXaEA
References: <F016848C232375449D66E2D139DFED2F01B2A62C@IMCSRV4.MITRE.ORG>
From: "Mann, Dave" <damann@mitre.org>
To: <oroboyz@aol.com>, <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: [CR]RE: intro... now: frame geometry

oroboyz@aol.com wrote:
> The frame geometry web site shown on your e-mail signature interested
> me..
>
> http://home.comcast.net/~pinnah/dirtbag-bikes/geometry-project.html
>
> Pretty much fun trying to catalog and categorize that information!
>
> My first thoughts were how bikes with almost-the-same geometry
> (assuming "identical" is impossible) often "seem" to ride
> differently... The whole process of "ride" is so subjective and not
> able to be measured. Lordy, many have tried and tried to evaluate
> "ride" but it is still an elusive art...

Dale,

You are very, very right and I should beef up the caveats on the web page to reflect that.

Actually, the elusive description of feel is something that skiers understand. With skis, the basic shape of a ski is described by the 3 widths at the tip, waist and tail of the ski. But, there are zillion different aspects of ski construction that affect the feel of a ski: camber, flex, torsional stiffness, dampening, construction method, core material and on and on. http://home.comcast.net/~pinnah/DirtbagPinner/bc-skis.html

That said, skis and bikes that share similar dimensions are more or less, well, similar. Well, similar enough for my brain to begin to see the landscape a bit better.

You've raised a really good reminder though. The lense by what you look at something shapes what you see. In this case, I've hammered some bike geometries into a spreadsheet. It's not the whole truth, to be sure.

-Dave Mann, Boston, MA ========================= ========================= =========== THE BIKE GEOMETRY PROJECT A community effort to document and compare bike geometries http://home.comcast.net/~pinnah/dirtbag-bikes/geometry-project.html ========================= ========================= ===========