Well, this certainly has been a lively discussion! I'm inclined to suspect that Jan Heine is right. My 22 lb Rambouillet and 25 lb Trek 620 have similar geometry and very similar handling and responsiveness, despite a 10% weight difference. The 30 lb Ebisu has the advantage of handling significantly beefier tires (It seems to be like an AHH but with canti brakes) but the OS tubing and added stiffness may degrade responsiveness a small but noticeable amount. I don't think I have ever ridden a standard gauge frame designed around 35-42 mm tires that wasn't also specked to be a workhorse. Is it live or is it memorex? Is it weight or is it stiffness? Who can be sure!
The snow and mud is receding here in Vt but with the wind blowing at 40 - 50 mph, no bike feels lively. michael On Mar 18, 10:52 am, Jan Heine <[email protected]> wrote: > > i can almost guarantee if you reduce bike weight by 5 lbs, you > > will both notice and enjoy the difference. > > I am not sure that bike weight matters much by itself. My bike rides > the same whether I carry only a spare tube in the handlebar bag or am > loaded down with 10 lbs of food and clothes for a 600 km brevet. (Yes, > you can measure the difference on a long climb, but it doesn't change > how the bike feels, nor how much I enjoy the ride.) > > That said, I really dislike riding bikes with heavy frames. Not > because they weigh more, but because they feel different. Call it > "lively feel" or "planing," there is a joy to a high-performance bike > that is absent from a bike that is overbuilt and too stiff for the > purpose. Putting lighter parts on a heavy frame doesn't make a > difference... > > In the 1960s and early 1970s, time trial bikes were equipped with > drilled-out components and even cantilever brakes to save weight. > (Remember <a href="http://www.bikequarterly.com/rebour.html";>Merckx' > hour record bike</a>?) The conventional wisdom was that a TT bike had > to be as light as possible, even on a flat course. Of course, we all > know that the bike's weight matters little in a flat time trial, but > the old wisdom probably had some underlying grain of truth. I am sure > that I would have preferred to ride at a constant, all-out effort on > the superlight frame of a TT bike than on the heavier frame of a > standard racing bike, because of its "lively feel" or "planing," and > not because of the holes drilled into the chainrings! > > Jan Heine > Editor > Bicycle Quarterlyhttp://www.bikequarterly.com > > Follow our blog athttp://janheine.wordpress.com/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
