Every review you read in the cycling press seems to ignore the fact that they fail to quantify the term FAST.

When a review says 'The bike felt faster thatn the rest', it has no correlation to the measured reality, just the testers opinion.

So, if you were to pinpoint one factor of a road bicycle that would have the biggest effect on how fast the bike felt, what would it be?

As you have probably guessed, I am a student at the University of Birmingham in England. The above discussion is part of my Final Year Project 'What makes a Bicycle feel fast'.

My hypothesis is that, what makes a bicycle FEEL fast, won't actually make the bike faster in the measured reality.

I start testing soon, so your comments would be appreciated.

Nick Downham
School of Manufacturing & Mechanical Engineering
The University of Birmingham.
ncd625@bham.ac.uk