Originally Posted by
BobbyG
... how a bike feels to a rider should be more important than how correct it is...
Bobby G, I liked your whole post. One other aspect of the high-fidelity question is how a system works. My step-father is a pretty bright guy (physics degree, retired Foreign Service Officer, was a Vice Consul) who likes hi-fi. He was telling me about some speaker brand in the 1970s (Advent?) in which the speaker was deliberately made to give a nonlinear response. The inverse of that nonlinearity was incorporated in the amplifier design and the net result was a pretty linear (but aurally pleasing) sound. The point is that individually the speakers and the amps would have "poor" specs, but together they worked great. So within some limits, how the bike feels to the rider is key.
Nice analogy and interesting post. Thx!