Originally Posted by BobbyG

Back in the late 1980s or early 1990s, Stereo Review columnist Julian Hirsh, who had written about consumer sound equipment since the 1940s came to the conclusion that specifications are just a guide; that after a certain precision is reached, unless technical purity is the goal, personal taste holds sway. He wrote if it sounds good to you, it's good.

I will tell you from personal experience as a video and sound producer for over thirty years, I appreciate flat, accurate sound and video reproduction for reference. But it tends to be lifeless and sterile.

I came to realize that so many pre-computer designed speakers, amplifiers, microphones, lenses and films were loved, not for their accuracy, but for their feel. Because before precise measurements were easily attained the design and engineering process contained a lot more eyeballing and ear-balling. That is, does it look good, sound good and feel good. This is the human element which has been squeezed so far out of modern design by computer modeling and specing.

This would also apply to bicycles. To be sure, if one was designing a performance bicycle for competition, then how it felt would be less important than how it feels. But for riding other than competition, how a bike feels to a rider should be more important than how correct it is.

Jay Leno has stated many times that a fifty or sixty year old sports car with a weak engine, and modest handling can be more fun to drive at its stunted limits, than a super car with advanced handling and power.

Similarly, older bicycles and custom built bikes have small quirks and vices that endear them to us and suggest a personality.

Your physical being is unique, your cyling sensibilities are also singular, the culmination of a combination of experiences only you have accumulated.

You are the judge, the arbiter, the final say-so. If it feels right, it is right. If it feels "off", it's not right.

The answer lies within.