Originally Posted by
Soloist Assassin
Obviously my 5 minute chop is not backed up by any wind tunnel data. I am certain however, that reducing the frontal area would reduce the drag. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. The other good thing is my design is with racers in mind, not the beach cruiser 60+ crowd.
Look, your statements are preposterous. How on earth can you go from "not backed up by any data" and immediately follow with "I am certain however"... it doesn't make the slightest bit of sense. Have you ever been to a wind tunnel? (I'll go ahead and guess "no"). Do you have any background in particle/fluid dynamics? (again, I'll go ahead and guess "no")
Does Cervelo? (Let's just guess at "yes")... I bet that they've picked up a thing or two over the last decade-ish, and their designs are pretty decent in the wind.
I've raced a cervelo for a while, and something I noticed is that very few people spend much time in the drops. Making the drops more accessible to the majority of bike riders by raising the headtube is a bonus to better handling, and will help more people actually ride in a more aero-position.
Also - the business side of things doesn't seem to make any sense to you, so I won't bother you with it again after this last try ...
Cervelo doesn't make bikes to sell to high-level racers. Their business would fall off precipitously because high-level racers do not pay full price for their bikes. Heck, Cat4s usually don't pay full price for their bikes.
Heinrich Hausler will ride what he is given, because he is paid to do so... and, it should be noted, he would be faster on most TdF stages riding an MTB with knobby tires than you or I would be on any production bike in existence. HH rides what he is given, and he gets paid to do so because then people with money see what bike he is riding and will buy it.
I know a few racers that are national/world caliber. None of them have a spare 12K sitting around to outfit themselves with a new pair of bikes.
The bike companies that are paying attention and wish to remain solvent will design products for people who can afford to buy them... designing primarily for racers is a great way to go out of business.
Cervelo is intelligent enough to see that. They design bikes to maximize their business and their appeal to the
broadest set of purchasing customers.
Either you want a Cervelo or you don't. The option of "Cervelo, but designed for me, the way I want it in my utterly uneducated fashion" is not a Cervelo.
If you want a low-HT bike that looks exactly the way you want it to - they exist... but they aren't made by Cervelo.
Much like dating - either you want them, or you don't... you can't pick out one person's personality, one person's face, another person's money, and then say that it would be the perfect thing...
a) you don't actually know you'd like that.
&
b) it isn't an option.