Originally Posted by dddd

Thanks for translating some of the article. Very interesting, I was suspecting that Ganolo was perhaps Italian and that perhaps their design was a hasty copy of the original Polchlopek design.

Seems like Sanson and/or Gobillot didn't patent the curved seat structure, but did the original idea even specify whether it was a "curved piece of formed flat stock" or a tube?

The Polchlopek design maintains a straight load path from rear axle to saddle clamp which is also pretty vertical for keeping the saddle loading from trying to buckle the Pochlopek's main saddle-load path, but vertical loadings applied to the crank/bb would seem to put great tension load on the "fender" strut that surrounds the tire.

The Ganolo also has a curved seat tube (actually a tube), but the load path here isn't straight from saddle to the axle or to the bb. I recall Norris's comment on a lack of structure where the Ganolo's seat stays meet the bottom of the seat post tube. the thing looks flexy in all directions down from the saddle, likely more comfortable on bumpy pavement.

I can see either design being viable for expected conditions, given sufficient testing to identify high stress, high-fatigue areas. Concentrated flex needs appropriate thin sections and load distribution to survive.
Presumably at least some testing was done, and at least my Polchlopek's frame is free of cracks, although is appears to be a low mileage example, like most used TT bikes are.

Another frame that comes to mind from this era, predating these by a couple of years, is the RIGI. An Italian design-award winner, and also with very shortened chainstays, though perhaps more of a hillclimb bike than a TT machine since the head tube angle is EXTREMLY steep at 78 degrees, quite unlike the TT-friendly head tube angle of ~73 degrees for the Polchlopek Rigideol 2.

Those were truly the wild frame-experimentation years, much like the 1990's became a time of much component experimentation (with testing often done by, and at the buyer's expense).
I recall countless CNC creations from billet alloys, as well as a couple of thin/hollow/welded crank designs made of sheet steel or titanium, and many of these broke after not so much usage.