NoReg

Thanks!

What I meant by the load first thing (or any other very important starting place), is that if you did that with an off the rack purchase you would end up riding a bike that was dictated by your panniers, hypothetically, and that would be silly for the most part. But with custom, the parts are being shaped together, so your seat (for instance) isn't where it is because the seat post, rails and seat tube make it that way. You start with where the seat needs to be in space, then figure out where that seat needs to be supported given it's rails (Brooks is a little special in this regard), then maybe you decide you don't need an offset post because this isn't a road racing frame, and then you decide what the seat post angle needs to be for all that to go together. Then maybe you move on to seat suspension (I have bad back, but haven't needed this yet, it is just an example) so you have to make adjustments for the spring on your Brooks or a compression seat post, then all this is taken into account for you top tube height, and so on. And every design change you make gets stired back into the design spiral and worked up against everything else. And around and round you go until something sensible gels.


A lot of people love Ti, but while it is strong for a given weight, it is still heavy enough that going super oversize like Al can be a problem. So in smaller tubes it can be to flexy. Numbers are something in the order of 50% stronger than steel, 66% of the weight, while Al is 33% of the weight. Form is more dramatic than material type in configuring the structure. I'm sure those numbers are wrong, but that is the direction of the argument, which is where carbon comes in being both light and strong, relative to steel. Bad news is epoxy is not (love the stuff, sleep with it at my bedside, just saying though. So Ti might be more appropriete for non-clydesdales who don't have huge sway/shimy control needs