2009/8/26 John Hurley <JHurley@jdabrams.com>:
> Above all, it seems to me the weight of the rider and any baggage must
> be considered. What is plenty strong and durable for a 115-lb girl is
> probably totally inadequate for big heavy guy. Is there a built-in
> penalty here for lighter cyclists? Production wheels have to be built
> with someone in mind, and I doubt it is the lightweight individual.
That's the thing, every bicycle and bicycle part must be engineered and built for a curb hopping 300 pound guy with no souplesse or riding skills just to avoid liability risk. If you sell 100 bikes, probably at least a couple will inevitably wind up in a guy like that's hands.
What I believe is that means for us who aren't obese and have bike handling skills is that we probably cannot buy a bike or critical part that isn't massively overengineered (and thus overweight) in terms of strength for our purposes any longer.
I shudder to think what would happen if a bike that was made just strong enough to be safe and practical for me wound up in the hands of that 300 lb. curb hopper. Even though it might last me years or even decades safely, it probably wouldn't last 100 miles before failing somewhere catastrophically with that guy riding it.
Kurt Sperry
Bellingham,Washington
USA