Thanks for the comparison review.

I'd like to offer so observations regarding the similarity on the wooden bridge (which btw seems like a smooth piece of pavement against my rough slatted monster wooden bridge).


Bike suspension is vertical compliance so that vertical road roughness gets attenuated. How this happens on the Birdy, is straightforward to understand. On the tikit, the things that come into focus are the long and relatively thin seat mast and steering riser. These are the items that must be doing a large part of the vertical flexing. Especially if one considers that the Birdy's aluminium larger diameter seatpost and steering tubes are MUCH stiffer compared to the thinner steel tubes on the tikit. The seatpost and steering riser on the Birdy can't be contributing much at all.

These differences come from the fact that for aluminium to be suitable in design, the tubing must be of such stiffness that the stress on that tubing does not result in appreciable bending, since aluminium can't bend very far before getting over-stressed. The stiffness comes from the particular alloy combined with the diameter of the tubing, and the tube wall thickness to a lesser degree. The tikit's thinner steel tubing is whippy compared to the birdy's.

The tyres are of course very important too - a concrete dougnut will wreck one's riding pleasure faster than a tax bill arriving in the mail. The Scorchers have very compliant sidewalls compared to that rear tyre on the Birdy - that is a Maxxis which is a POS for ride comfort. The Maxxis will be transmitting quite a bit more high frequency to the frame, most of which the suspension will remove but certainly not all. Being aluminium, that buzz will be felt keenly especially compared to the steel tikit with scorchers.